Fear of dehydration

[whvick]

We talk so much about guitars drying out, and how to keep them hydrated, that I feel a little paranoid. Tonight the humidity in my house is 33%, and I caught myself thinking I should net keep it out too long before getting it back into the case and the dampit.
But this is not rational. How many hours would it need to be out before it would have any effect on the guitar???

[SteveS]

Just play it for as long as you want and then put it back in the case. No one could possibly know how long is too long at 33% RH. I'm certain that playing it for 3-4 hours and then putting it back in the case will not be a problem.
I'm not a big fan of the dampit. Just get a travel soap case and keep a damp sponge in it. Put that near the headstock in the case.

[DenverSteve]

Originally Posted by whvick

We talk so much about guitars drying out, and how to keep them hydrated, that I feel a little paranoid. Tonight the humidity in my house is 33%, and I caught myself thinking I should net keep it out too long before getting it back into the case and the dampit.
But this is not rational. How many hours would it need to be out before it would have any effect on the guitar???

Days or weeks assuming you take it out at 45+ per cent humidity. They don't just implode. Whatever you did in the past to keep them healthy likely worked. If your environment is 33%, your guitar won't have its moisture wicked out over night.

[Rev Roy]

If you keep it in the case when you’re not playing the only thing that really matters is the humidity in the case. Very doubtful that you are going to play it for so many hours in a single day to have your house humidity drastically effect the guitar. So keep a hygrometer in your case, use whatever system you want to keep the humidity averaging between 40-55% (I used Humidipaks) and you’ll be fine.

[fazool]

My philosophy is this:


Without ever humidifying a guitar probably has a 90% chance of being just fine for it's entire life.

But that means, without humidifying there is a 10% chance that it will suffer damage at some point in it's life.

On the other hand, humidifiying a guitar probably raises it's chances of being fine to 98%. While this looks like you are only improving it's chance of safety by 9%, you are actually reducing the chance of damage by 80%.

But that means, even when humidifying you still have a 2% chance of developing damage.

The numbers are made up to illustrate my philosophy. It all depends on how you look at it and it's all about risk tolerance.


I prefer being in my 98% safe grouping.

[JayBee1404]

If you’re storing your guitars in their cases, and you keep them properly humidified when they’re in their cases (you do have hygrometers in the cases, don’t you?), you will not damage them by taking them out for a playing session of a few hours. Guitars don’t dry out in hours, it takes days, weeks, or even months, depending on the ambient RH of your house. And, of course, when you put the guitar back in it’s properly humidified case, any moisture it may have lost while out being played will be replaced while it’s in the case.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

[RalphH]

I'm a recent convert to taking an interest in all this. I store and play my guitars in a humidity-controlled room, which is much less over the top than it sounds. Total cost is less than £150 for a small room.

You just need a controller:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/produc...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A humidifier:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/produc...YOG6U1LV&psc=1

And a dehumidifier:
https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/produc...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My room is always at 45%RH +/- 1%. My guitars hang on the wall 24/7 and I can easily play then as much or as little as I want with no worry. It's cheap and easy to do.

Just remember to keep the door closed most of the time so you're not trying to hum/dehum your entire house with a small device. Even small devices will get a (small) room to the right level and keep it there, but not if there is constant air change.

Also, when picking a humidifier and dehumidifier, make sure you get the cheap ones that have traditional on/off switches because the controller works by turning on power to the device. If you buy something too cleaver with touch-sensitive buttons it won't turn on jsut because power is being delivered.

[Murphy Slaw]

Any time I think mine are getting too dry, I just wait for it to rain.

Then I take them out and play them in the rain.

[M19]

Even though I have a whole house humidifier, Minnesota winters can bring the RH in the house pretty low. I don't worry about it until it gets below 25%, and I've never had an issue in a decade, with all my guitars out of their cases in a Herc rack.
PS. It's currently 68.8F and 39%RH in my study.

[UncleJesse]

The house I live in now is very well insulated. So while the outside humidity can swing both ways in the midwest I've been lucky that my house almost naturally stays in the 40-50% range. I have only had to put something in the cases once in the last year and only had to run a humidifier inside on the coldest of days. The ambient humidity change gets the proper humidity into the cases. At least that's what my sensors say.

[The Bard Rocks]

The thing to keep in mind is that guitar lose or add moisture very slowly. How long it would take to do damage is a guess as it is probably different for each guitar - 24 hours? Days? A week? We don't know, and we don't want to find out. So we err on the side of being conservative.

Which also means it takes a while after proper humidity is restored to its environment before it begins to correct itself.

As far as the Dampit is concerned, I have used them successfully for years and even literally wore one out. I prefer a home-made gizmo using water beads now but still use the 2 Dampits I have left. There aren't many humidity devices on the market that I haven't tried and they have all done the job. I don't like them all equally.

[JKA]

Originally Posted by whvick

We talk so much about guitars drying out, and how to keep them hydrated, that I feel a little paranoid. Tonight the humidity in my house is 33%, and I caught myself thinking I should net keep it out too long before getting it back into the case and the dampit.
But this is not rational. How many hours would it need to be out before it would have any effect on the guitar???

I find a pint of water chucked in the soundhole every now and then does the trick. Mind you, only water. Alcohol causes even worse dehydration!

[raysachs]

If your guitar is in a humidified case 18-20 hours per day, the few hours you have it out playing it isn't gonna matter. I'm irrational, so I humidify my guitar room anyway, and that way I can leave them out a lot of the time, but I don't need to. I have cases sitting on tables where it's really quick and easy to get a guitar out and put it back...

-Ray

[rokdog49]

Ahhh the inevitable winter time “humidification posts”

[Methos1979]

It's an interesting question that can be argued ad nauseum in every direction with so many variables that there really is no right answer. Different guitars, different woods, the list goes on. I like fazool's theory and those numbers sound good and make sense.

I used to go crazy with humidification and fear a few years ago. Then I went all carbon fiber for a year and didn't worry. Now I'm back to all wood and have made the conscience decision to not worry or humidify at all other than putting those little Planet Waves sponge holders in the sound hole between the strings.

My guitars (all three) also hang on outside walls year round. I figure that in the winter for a relatively short duration the RH drops to around 35%. We have a small house so if someone takes a shower or boils water it rises up to 50% for an hour or so. In the spring, summer and fall it's up around 60%.

My feeling is if a guitar slowly dries out a low humidity then it stands to reason that is also absorbs water when the humidity is higher, right? So with the humidity in the 60's three quarters of the year and mid-30's for the other quarter of the year I think that I would be fine with doing nothing.

I do have some precedence with this. I had a all-solid wood, very lightly built acoustic guitar that I hung on the same outside wall in my living room for 10 years and did nothing more than the aforementioned Planet Waves sound hole humidfier and the guitar did not suffer any damage whatsoever. AND we heated the whole house with a large Vermont Castings wood stove back then! In the same room!!

So, I've decided to be the test subject on my three guitars. I'll let you know if they crack or suffer any damage. Check back in 10 years or so.