Humidity concerns in South Florida

[B Chas]

Here in South Florida, where we have the ocean on one side, the everglades on the other and rain almost daily in the summer, humidity is quite high, as are temps. Air conditioners are on almost all the time. I have been advised that the only humidity control needed is to keep guitars in their cases when not playing. Does this sound like good advice? It also occurs to me that I need to be prepared for high humidity and no air conditioning, just in case the A/C breaks or we have a power outage or our favorite, hurricanes with no power for days or more. What should I have on hand for these situations? We also have our winter weather where temperatures plunge into the 60’s with low humidity, for days, maybe even a week, any concerns there.
Until now I just had electrics and laminated acoustics, so I never was concerned. Since spending time here on this forum, now the acoustic gas has formed and some advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Chazmo]

B Chas,

An important topic, for sure. I highly recommend spending some time watching the videos on Taylor's web site.

In short, there is some danger of guitar swelling to the point of some top warpage and possible brace separation due to over-humidifying. High humidity also seems to take the life out of my strings fairly quickly. However, I must say that I think the bigger risk to guitars is dehumidification, which ultimately leads to cracks from shrinkage, warpage, bridge lifts, etc.

I've personally been burned from dehumidification on two mahogany guitars (one with a spruce top, one all mahogany). The damage was major cracking and bridge lifts on both guitars. One never quite took its shape back after rehumidifying, but both have been amply braced and are playable.

Our summers in New England stay pretty much between 70 and 80% RH, which is too high. I occasionally run air conditioning in the house, and that pulls some of the humidity out, but not all the time. My guitars mostly stay in their cases, but I don't do any case dehumidification or anything special in summer. Winter, of course, with 20-30% RH, well, that's another story and I do a lot now.

I think that given your location, you should consider air conditioning and dehumidification of your room, if you're keeping your guitars out. However, if not, I really doubt you'll run into trouble. That said, yours may be a fairly extreme environment.

Guitars like to live at around 50% RH, by the way. That's about ideal. If you can do something do stabilize your environment around that, then that's all good.

As with temperature, rapid humidity swings are something to avoid. I mean a guitar which is living in a room at 70% RH is probably fine. But if you're dragging it back and forth from an A/C'd room which is down around 40%... you might want to think about it.

Best wishes.

[ewalling]

I live in Doral, Miami, and as a word of reassurance, I haven't yet encountered any problems with climate or needed any fancy humidifiers. Yes, the humidity and temperatures are high in summer, but as you say, the air conditioning keeps them within safe limits. Moreover, last summer my wife and I went away for a few weeks and we switched off the aircon, but nothing untoward happened to my guitars. In winter I sometimes put a bowl of water in the closet where the guitars are stored, and that raises the humidity reading on my hygrometer perhaps not up to 45% but usually to at least 40. I do keep my guitars in their cases when they are not being played unless the humidity level on the hygrometer shows between 45%-55%.

[whamonkey]

Keep em in the case and don't worry about it.

Or buy a Composite Acoustic....you could leave that in the backyard and it would be fine.

[Jimbo00]

The ideal acoustic guitar for FL in my opinion is the Ovation brand. that's top to bottom for their product lines. The composite bowl/body eliminates that much wood to swell or shrink. Today in Flagler county, outdoors was 89-90% RH, the AC gets that down to 58-60%. While that's above the 45-55% range, the Ovation is polyurethane top and the neck & head stock as also polyurethane and sealed from excessive moisture. That really leaves the fretboard and the underside of the sound board to stay ideal. The bridge is like the fretboard, rosewood material. Rosewood resists drying out and oiled properly will also seal & protect, repelling moisture. Whether it's the Applause or Celebrity beginner models of their product line to the intermediate Balladeers & most expensive Ovation Adamas series. those composite bowls are going to eliminate that much pulling apart when moisture or dry out occurs. The bracing of the sound board and the glue & bowl/body binding, the Ovation is a tank for an acoustic. I thought about dehumidifying the house, but the pre-owned Ovation I have has seen worse environments for the music stores in it's lifetime, even the one I found it in. That was in a music store that's been around easily since the 1950's in Daytona Beach, FL. I'd really like to use a wood moisture meter to measure any guitar. That's really the only way you're going to find out whether one is fire kindling starting dry or water logged beach driftwood wet. When I bought my house, the home inspector used a moisture meter to test the drywall and wood trim. I figure, even at 60% humidity, it's just a matter of time before everything becomes wet inside the house.