After the first crack I don't care anymore

[jwayne]

Have a Yamaha CPX8 that I bought used a number of years back; enjoy playing it especially because it has both a built-in mic in addition to the under saddle pickup. Couple of years ago it developed a face crack extending from the bottom to the sound hole. Had it professionally repaired; he used cleats and sealed it pretty good.

Lo and behold, the crack opened up again and now there are two more cracks.



Doesn't make sense to spend more money fixing this guitar. I'll just let it be.

It never gets dry in SE Michigan (77% humidity today) and we have a leaky house that also uses hot water baseboard heat. This is the only guitar I have had crack on me (except for a piece of crap classical guitar I bought in Portugal as a young'in not knowing any better, but that's a whole 'nother story).

Originally Posted by jwayne

...It never gets dry in SE Michigan (77% humidity today) and we have a leaky house that also uses hot water baseboard heat...

You misunderstand the problem. It is very dry in SE Michigan, indoors where your guitars live. If the outdoor relative humidity is 70% and it's below 25 degrees, your indoor relative humidity is going to be 20% or less. That is very dry, and it is why your guitar cracked originally, and why it cracked again.

However, as long as you have no loose braces, you'll probably fine doing nothing else to it.

[mjudd]

Originally Posted by Todd Yates

You misunderstand the problem. It is very dry in SE Michigan, indoors where your guitars live. If the outdoor relative humidity is 70% and it's below 25 degrees, your indoor relative humidity is going to be 20% or less. That is very dry, and it is why your guitar cracked originally, and why it cracked again.

However, as long as you have no loose braces, you'll probably fine doing nothing else to it.

Yup; this is right. Get yourself a guitar humidifier and see if you can keep it from getting worse.

[guitar george]

Consider yourself lucky! You don't have to worry about temperature or humidity anymore.

[jwayne]

Originally Posted by Todd Yates

You misunderstand the problem. It is very dry in SE Michigan, indoors where your guitars live. If the outdoor relative humidity is 70% and it's below 25 degrees, your indoor relative humidity is going to be 20% or less. That is very dry, and it is why your guitar cracked originally, and why it cracked again.

However, as long as you have no loose braces, you'll probably fine doing nothing else to it.

Well now you have scared me! I have a couple of (inexpensive) hygrometers and have never seen them go that low. Now shows 35%. Do I need something more accurate?

[ManyMartinMan]

Originally Posted by jwayne

... Do I need something more accurate?

Well, something’s not right.

[Steadfastly]

If it gets really bad, you can start calling it "Trigger II".

[Tico]

Originally Posted by Todd Yates

You misunderstand the problem. It is very dry in SE Michigan, indoors where your guitars live. If the outdoor relative humidity is 70% and it's below 25 degrees, your indoor relative humidity is going to be 20% or less. That is very dry, and it is why your guitar cracked originally, and why it cracked again.

However, as long as you have no loose braces, you'll probably fine doing nothing else to it.

Correct.
That's why it's called relative humidity (RH), not just humidity.

Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air can.
So RH is how much H20 is in the air at a given temp compared to the maximum air COULD hold at that particular temp.

At any time the actual number of H20 molecules per cubic foot inside and outside will be similar ... say one billion per cubic foot (made up number).

BUT when the temp inside is much lower than the temp outside the relative humidity inside will be much lower ... again even though there are the same one billion H20 molecules per cubic foot both inside and outside.

This is not intuitive, and mind-blowing so it requires just accepting the science.

[rogthefrog]

Originally Posted by jwayne

Well now you have scared me! I have a couple of (inexpensive) hygrometers and have never seen them go that low. Now shows 35%. Do I need something more accurate?

35% is still low. 45-55% is a good range.

[high]

Originally Posted by Tico

BUT when the temp inside is much lower than the temp outside the relative humidity inside will be much lower ...

you have a typo here, it should read:


BUT when the temp inside is much higher than the temp outside the relative humidity inside will be much lower ...

[Quickstep192]

I also understand that even though warmer air can hold more moisture, when your heating system heats the air in your house, it’s robbing humidity from the air in the process.

So, am I better off to keep the house warm to improve humidity, or make the furnace run less to keep the heat from reducing the humidity?

I have a steam generating whole house humidifier that boils water to humidity, but even at that it’s struggling to keep up in the current weather in the mid-Atlantic.

[Moocheng]

theres a song about this


The first crack is the deepest, baby, I know
The first crack is the deepest
But when it comes to being lucky, he's cursed
When it comes to lovin' me, he's worse

[codecontra]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

I also understand that even though warmer air can hold more moisture, when your heating system heats the air in your house, it’s robbing humidity from the air in the process.

So, am I better off to keep the house warm to improve humidity, or make the furnace run less to keep the heat from reducing the humidity?

I have a steam generating whole house humidifier that boils water to humidity, but even at that it’s struggling to keep up in the current weather in the mid-Atlantic.

You are better off simply investing in a room or in case humidifier. They both work very well.

[high]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_humidity

[musicman1951]

Originally Posted by Quickstep192

I also understand that even though warmer air can hold more moisture, when your heating system heats the air in your house, it’s robbing humidity from the air in the process.

So, am I better off to keep the house warm to improve humidity, or make the furnace run less to keep the heat from reducing the humidity?

I have a steam generating whole house humidifier that boils water to humidity, but even at that it’s struggling to keep up in the current weather in the mid-Atlantic.

I think of it as the furnace cooking the humidity out of the air, so cooler in the house is better. But get a humidifier.