Advice re: High Action on Acoustic

[Markcarl]

I suspect I may have over humidified my Collings OM-2HAC acoustic guitar. It was in my basement in a Calton case with Oasis humidifier inside. The other day when I took the guitar out of the case the action was noticeably higher than I’ve ever seen it. My question is this. Should I try to let the guitar “dry out” a bit before doing a truss rod adjustment or should I just adjust the truss rod?

Some context. I live in South Dakota where it’s very dry in the winter time. For the last year I’ve mostly been playing my carbon fiber acoustic guitars and my wood guitars have spent most of the time in their cases.

[DickHutchings]

I'm going to say that the truss rod has little to with this fix. The action is going to go back down when it dries out so the best thing to do is make a second saddle for when it get's over humidified.

[redir]

If it's been months since you took the guitar out of the case then it could be other things too. Is this time of year in SD relatively normal? If so sit it on a stand in your living room for a week and see what happens.

[Markcarl]

Originally Posted by redir

If it's been months since you took the guitar out of the case then it could be other things too. Is this time of year in SD relatively normal? If so sit it on a stand in your living room for a week and see what happens.

Yes, it’s been months since I took the guitar out of a Calton case. The guitar had an Oasis humidifier in it. I’ve only lived in SD a year. I’ve heard that we had an unusually amount of rain this year. I wonder if the combination of the Oasis humidifier and unusual rainy weather combined to cause the guitar to be over humidified? Right now, the indoor humidity of my house has been between 40-45%. I like your idea of keeping the guitar out on a stand for a week and am trying that. Thanks!

[PaulVA]

With the humidity in the house at 40-45% this time of year, you don't need any extra humidification so I would leave the in-case humidifier out when you put it back in the case. I think the action issue is probably caused by over-humidification, hope drying out a bit will get you all fixed up! The point mentioned above about truss rod adjustment: it's not the recommended method of adjusting 12th fret action, that should be done by raising or lowering the saddle height. The truss rod adjustment is for changing the relief (curvature of the neck), it is typically advised to measure relief before adjusting the truss rod to make sure that an adjustment is needed. Taking relief out of the neck does have the effect of lowering the 12th fret action, but if the relief is satisfactory before adjusting you'll likely get it too flat or put a back-bow in the neck which can cause buzzing at the lower frets.

[Markcarl]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I wanted to provide an update. My house has been between 43% - 48% humidity over the last week and a half. I took my guitar out of its case and have left it hanging on a wall hangar during that time.

I think the guitar has dried out a bit and is closer to its proper humidity. I've noticed the action at the 12th fret has gone down and the guitar is easy to play and sounds normal. I'm very happy.

I purchased hygrometers for the cases of my wood guitars so I can check on the humidity levels in the cases. My key learning here is that you can over humidify a guitar and need to monitor the humidity levels when storing a guitar in its case!

[55tele]

I have some personal experience with this....As you suspected, the Calton cases are very airtight. Years ago, 2 of my Collings Dreads developed high actions during the winter and I foolishly shaved the saddles down. When I looked more closely, I saw signs of overhumidication and came to realize that was the root cause. Let them dry out, had new saddles cut and all good....

So, I came to find out you do have to be very careful with good guitars in Calton cases to not overdo the humidifier. I used and continue to use the Oasis system. I have a furnace humidifier as well. The frequency of almost weekly refilling the Oasis was way too much.

I have since ditched my Caltons (too heavy and that level of protection not needed). You have to evaluate for your own specific situation. I'm in NW suburban Chicago and with my house environment (about 35-40% max during the winter, usually less) and the frequency of my actually uncasing the guitars, I find refilling the Oasis 2, maybe 3 times during Nov through March is plenty good.....now with the wooden cases......

You'll have to figure out this for yourself based on your own specific conditions....