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Old 01-06-2020, 11:17 AM
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raysachs raysachs is offline
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Location: Eugene, OR & Wilmington, NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeBmusic View Post
Those of us in the 'cold belts' know all about it!
Indeed. I live a bit south of the cold belt, but it's cold enough.

But I'm learning about high humidity this winter. We're down on the North Carolina Coast for three months - our daughter lives down here and we've been coming down each of the last four winters. We rent a little condo right on the beach that would cost a fortune in the summer, but is dirt cheap in the winter - almost cheaper than staying home all things considered.

At the beginning of 2017 I was just starting to play again after a very long layoff and I had a cheap Taylor and didn't give humidity a thought. The next year I was back into it and had a Martin 000-15M and was really paying attention to humidity by then. And I guess it was a cold winter, because I was running two small (also too small) Vornado humidifiers and I couldn't usually keep the small room where I play up above 40%. It was an issue most of the winter with just a few short periods where the humidity was OK without any help.

Last year I only brought a carbon fiber acoustic so I didn't pay any attention to humidity again. But THIS year I've added another Martin 000-15, the SM 12-fret version, and I'm paying attention again. And based on my experience two years ago, I brought down my newer nuclear powered humidifier I've been using in Pennsylvania - it's rated for 2600 square feet and does a fine job on my 160 square foot man-cave even when it's down in the 20's and occasionally teens. But I haven't even set it up down here. We've been here 3+ weeks and have had a couple of colder days where the indoor humidity got down a bit below 40 just at night when the heat was cranking, but I just kept the Martin in it's case with humidipaks. And we've had many days with indoor humidity right in the comfortable 40-55% range.

BUT, we've ALSO had many mild and very humid days, not hot enough for AC, where the indoor humidity is 65% and up. I don't worry about humidity up to 60% and I don't worry in term of long terms structural issues even for short periods above that, but my guitar starts sounding really kind of dead when it's that humid for any period of time. So, again, I'm mostly keeping it cased with humidipaks and playing the carbon fiber guitar. But they can only seem to keep the case just below 60%, about 58-59% usually. Which is OK, but still a bit more than optimal. So I'm actually gonna try adding some desiccant paks to the case when it's that humid going forward and see if I can get down a bit closer to 50%.

This was not something I was expecting or experienced with. When it gets really humid at home in Pennsylvania, it's also HOT and we're running AC, and that'll often bring the indoor humidity down to around or below 40%. But down here in the winter, it can be humid and still quite mild and it presents it's own challenges. Now that I'm ready with desiccants, we'll probably hit a cold spell for most of the next couple of months and I'll have to start running the humidifier.

This has all been rather unexpected. Just when you think you have it figured out...
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