Am I negligent?

[Dru Edwards]

Welcome to the AGF! Nothing wrong with taking your guitar to day long jams, that's what they're meant for.

Guessing you don't leave your guitar in car where the inside temp exceeds 100 degrees? That would be negligent.

[BeYou]

2 hygrometers ordered one for inside one for outside. Thanks for all the comments and advice. Stay tuned! 😉

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by Jdogblues

I wish I had 12-14 hour outdoor jams to neglect my guitar at

You're near Chicago, I'm near STL. There are plenty of bluegrass festivals or weekend jams within a reasonable drive from you. Back 40 bluegrass fest and Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival come to mind. You could probably jam even longer than that if you wanted

[Sadie-f]

Originally Posted by BeYou

I am concerned I have not been giving my Martin D35 proper care. The Martin is out of the case alot because I play it alot but guilty as charged I frequently leave it out of the case in a stand in my living room.

You haven't said there's a problem with the guitar !? So if you're simply worried, I'd venture you're not negligent. I also see in your profile, you're well inland in NC, that seems like a fairly safe environment for an acoustic. Probably not bone dry in winter, maybe a bit too humid in summer, I'd bet not like if you were on the coast.

Guitars are meant to be played, so I wouldn't take an expensive instrument outside if I knew rain was expected without having a really good case handy, and I'd be wary of playing in hot sun. But I have an Ovation that's well suited to wet / hot conditions.

[Jim Owen]

Welcome aboard, BeYou.

I think you’re using your guitar as it was intended. The winters where you are may be an issue if your heat is dry. Never leave it in a hot car for a long time—or in a dark case in the bright sun for hours in the summer.

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by BeYou

I am concerned I have not been giving my Martin D35 proper care. The Martin is out of the case alot because I play it alot but guilty as charged I frequently leave it out of the case in a stand in my living room.

Have I been a negligent owner or is this just random bad luck. Any thoughts on care moving forward. I bought the guitar to play it not store it like an heirloom. I frequently play jams outdoors that can last 12-14 hours with wide variety of temperature and humidity. Are they really this fragile? If so what is a good everyday knock about that has great sound but can take some abuse (long playing sessions in a variety of environments) every now and again?

Thanks in advance.

Maybe I missed it, but what exactly happened to your guitar?

[Zissou Intern]

My Martin was played outside, along with a Taylor 510 and a Collings koa SJ, for over 2 hours not 200 yards from the ocean on breezy, partly cloudy, 45°F Easter Sunday. All of these instruments were built to make music, not to be coveted.

[Blackmore Fan]

I know its not popular to assert this, but I keep my guitars out so that they're easily playable. They're on stands in inner rooms, no windows and completely climate controlled. I'm not worried about anything beyond fret-sprout, and that's a minor inconvenience. I can't imagine that guitar owners in the 70s and 80s did much more than that.

[rc3797]

I’m right up the road from you in Mayodan, and I’ve generally kept my instruments, including a 20’s Gibson that spent several decades in a tobacco barn, and a 50’s J-50 that I owned for a while, out in my house with 0 issues. I keep my Huss and Dalton cased with a Humidipak when not in use, but that’s more of a “protect it from everything else” in the house, rather than humidity.

[gitarro]

Unless you don't care if it cracks one day, keep it in the ideal range of humidity at all times.

[rokdog49]

There’s a lot of what I consider to be paranoia on this topic on the AGF.
Unless the environment your guitar is in has frequent or long term temperature and/or extreme changes in humidity, don’t worry about it. That’s my advice, take it or leave it.
Have a great day and enjoy your guitar!

[FingahPickah]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

My first guitar, a 1973 Guild D-25 was my sole guitar for more than thirty years, and it travelled widely. It was a well-built guitar but I ultimately wore it out, and bringing it back into playing shape was going to cost more than replacing it with a guitar of equal quality.

While I felt that I more than got my money's worth from that Guild, I replaced in with several guitars, including a stage guitar. I gotta tell you, spreading the wear and tear over multiple guitars greatly reduces the stress put on a single guitar. When I need my Martin dread, it's there. When I'm going to play plugged in at a festival, it stays home and the acoustic/electric takes the stage.

Coincidentally - my sole guitar for about twenty years was a 1973 Guild D44M (workhorse) - it is all relative, of course, but I have always opted to keep it in fine playing shape (in over 40+ years it's had one neck reset, two re-frets, one bridge plate repair and new bridge) - and I too have added other "best tools for the job" (spreading out the wear and tear on all of them).

And I'm pretty attentive to all of my instruments; care, maintenance, keep them tuned and played..

[mawmow]

Well, I used to keep my former laminates on cheap stands.
Then, came my first solid wood with attentionate care and
pauses in OHSC when not played.

With the building of a herd of solid wood acoustics came the
"fill the sponges" weekly job... I got fed up with.

I now humidify the whole room and have one or two acoustics
hung by their neck on a stand at a time : Why not ? Not worse
than lying in a gigbag, is it ?

And now, I dream of a wall with two rows of nicely hung acoustics.
And I cannot believe I DO dream of that !

[Jdogblues]

Originally Posted by UncleJesse

You're near Chicago, I'm near STL. There are plenty of bluegrass festivals or weekend jams within a reasonable drive from you. Back 40 bluegrass fest and Bill Monroe Bluegrass Festival come to mind. You could probably jam even longer than that if you wanted

Gonna have to look those up

[The Bard Rocks]

Like humans, guitars vary in their fragility. The changes take place slowly, perhaps unnoticed, until.....

When you want to play it, play it, for just as long as you like. But when the outside humidity levels are way off from the 45-55% range, then, when not being played, I'd case it with proper humidity control.

Here in upstate NY, I leave mine out much of the year - during the warmer months. But in the winter when the home gets very dry, they are cased and humidified when not being played.