Acoustic guitar in case or available on stand?

[jrb715]

I keep the guitars in cases with Humidipaks. In the past I've had a Collings suffer, to my surprise, from low humidity. I was lucky to catch it in time before lasting damage was done. And though I live in a region without a lot of high humidity, there are enough days where the humidity climbs and I find my guitars if left in humidity of 60% or more seem to me to sound relatively sloggy and dull.

Just not an issue to keep them in cases. I have guitar stands handy, and when I'm playing I just put a couple on stands. I don't stress about leaving them for a bit while I do something else, but when I know I'm not playing for awhile I just put them back into cases.

Never bothered me, and certainly never kept me from playing a guitar.

[Steel and wood]

All my guitars are stored in cases. (In cupboards or up in storage).

[Ludere]

Here in coastal VA, at least in my house, the RH has been hovering at around 45-50% and I have been enjoying having my guitars out on stands ... until today.

Since we started getting consistently chilly weather the last few days, the heat has been on and this afternoon my room hygrometer reached out and slapped me with a reading of 36% ...

So into their cases they go, with Oasis humidifiers and a little hygrometer in each case.

When I get to this phase, I keep a different guitar in its case right in the living room and rotate them each week, so I can pop it open and set it on a stand for a few hours or so and play whenever I feel so inclined. Yes, it's a little inconvenient, but not overly so.

And since it's only 4 guitars not too much effort to maintain, but if I had a couple more I'd probably be looking at a room humidifier.

(Note: Here comes the 'folksy yarn' part of the post, so feel free to tune out if you feel so inclined ... )

Without knowing what I was doing, I kept my Takamine dread in its injection-molded case for most of the 20+ years during my "sabbatical". I have no doubt that is why it is in the excellent condition it is today.

The only reason I had a case that good is because ... well, here's the story ...

Back in the mid 90's, when the guy at the little music store sold me the guitar, the following conversation ensued ...

"This is a decent guitar and I highly recommend you buy a hard shell case for it", sez he.
"But this decent guitar has taken me down to my last Peso", sez I.
"But you really need a case, especially in this area. I have a less expensive one for only $XX", sez he.
"I appreciate that", sez I, "but I can't even swing that right now".

... so he shrugs, and off I go to pay for the guitar ... so the nice young lady at the register rings me up, and when we're all done she says, "oh ... pick a nickel"... to which I naturally responded, "huh?" ...
"pick a nickel", she repeats and gestures toward a goldfish bowl on the counter, which is filled with wooden nickels, each bearing a different color dot ...
"pick a nickel, and depending on the color you pick, you get a prize ... blue is a set of strings, red is a tuner, etc, etc ... " so I pick a nickel, and I got a black one.
I showed it to her and she starts whoopin' and hollerin' at the guy in the back that I got the black one and she was laughing and telling me she was so happy for me and you woulda thought I won the deed to the place ...
Well I didn't, but what I did win was a pretty nice injection-molded Takamine hard shell case that was a perfect fit for my new guitar.
The guy brings it out, puts my guitar in it, hands it to me and he's grinnin' real big as he shakes my hand and says "I think you were supposed to have that".

I thanked them all very kindly, and I smiled for the rest of that week and into the next if I recall correctly ... in fact, it still makes me smile to this day.

[DukeX]

I haven't read the entire thread and can't even remember if I've already posted.

So I'll just say that I keep my guitars in their cases.

Except for the ones I don't.

[why2]

Originally Posted by Ludere

Here in coastal VA, at least in my house, the RH has been hovering at around 45-50% and I have been enjoying having my guitars out on stands ... until today.

Since we started getting consistently chilly weather the last few days, the heat has been on and this afternoon my room hygrometer reached out and slapped me with a reading of 36% ...

So into their cases they go, with Oasis humidifiers and a little hygrometer in each case.

When I get to this phase, I keep a different guitar in its case right in the living room and rotate them each week, so I can pop it open and set it on a stand for a few hours or so and play whenever I feel so inclined. Yes, it's a little inconvenient, but not overly so.

And since it's only 4 guitars not too much effort to maintain, but if I had a couple more I'd probably be looking at a room humidifier.

(Note: Here comes the 'folksy yarn' part of the post, so feel free to tune out if you feel so inclined ... )

Without knowing what I was doing, I kept my Takamine dread in its injection-molded case for most of the 20+ years during my "sabbatical". I have no doubt that is why it is in the excellent condition it is today.

The only reason I had a case that good is because ... well, here's the story ...

Back in the mid 90's, when the guy at the little music store sold me the guitar, the following conversation ensued ...

"This is a decent guitar and I highly recommend you buy a hard shell case for it", sez he.
"But this decent guitar has taken me down to my last Peso", sez I.
"But you really need a case, especially in this area. I have a less expensive one for only $XX", sez he.
"I appreciate that", sez I, "but I can't even swing that right now".

... so he shrugs, and off I go to pay for the guitar ... so the nice young lady at the register rings me up, and when we're all done she says, "oh ... pick a nickel"... to which I naturally responded, "huh?" ...
"pick a nickel", she repeats and gestures toward a goldfish bowl on the counter, which is filled with wooden nickels, each bearing a different color dot ...
"pick a nickel, and depending on the color you pick, you get a prize ... blue is a set of strings, red is a tuner, etc, etc ... " so I pick a nickel, and I got a black one.
I showed it to her and she starts whoopin' and hollerin' at the guy in the back that I got the black one and she was laughing and telling me she was so happy for me and you woulda thought I won the deed to the place ...
Well I didn't, but what I did win was a pretty nice injection-molded Takamine hard shell case that was a perfect fit for my new guitar.
The guy brings it out, puts my guitar in it, hands it to me and he's grinnin' real big as he shakes my hand and says "I think you were supposed to have that".

I thanked them all very kindly, and I smiled for the rest of that week and into the next if I recall correctly ... in fact, it still makes me smile to this day.

SWEET.....

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by rpguitar

25+ guitars on wall hooks and stands, with a room evaporative humidifier maintaining 40% year-round. Like this for almost 15 years now.

A man after my own heart.
40% is fine but most here on the forum don’t appear to agree
Anyway mine are all out year round. The room R.H. runs as low as 40% and as high as the low 50’s. I’ve never had any issues.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

A man after my own heart.
40% is fine but most here on the forum don’t appear to agree
Anyway mine are all out year round. The room R.H. runs as low as 40% and as high as the low 50’s. I’ve never had any issues.

If I could keep my man-cave above 40% I’d leave mine out all the time too. But even with a heating system wide humidifier and evaporative room humidifiers, I couldn’t keep it reliably over 40%. It’s generally low to mid 30’s in the winter and often down into the 20’s. So my all solid wood acoustic stays in its case when I’m not playing it during the colder months. I mean, if I’m playing and take a short break, I’ll just put it on a stand or wall hanger. But generally, when I’m putting it down for more than 10-15 minutes,it’s in its case with humidipaks...

[Dbone]

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again ->

If anyone is keeping their guitars out of their cases and keeping the area in their home where those guitars are located at a sustained/constant humidity in the range of 40 - 60 percent regardless of the outside temperature, you are putting mould in your home...in most cases behind the walls...

Read here

http://energysmartohio.com/how_it_wo...idity-matters/

As long as you are okay with that fact, keeping doing what you are doing.

Think climates like mine here in Canada. This is what I’m referring to.

There are alternatives to both protect your home, your health, and your guitars. From what I can see on here, most people do not understand or care about these realities, and they are more focused on their guitars only.

Having said this, I get the challenges one has with this kinda thing when having many guitars. This is part of the reason I will not have many guitars. This issue gets harder to manage properly when you do.

There is definitely something to be said for carbon fiber guitars ;-0

[guitar george]

Originally Posted by Dbone

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again ->

If anyone is keeping their guitars out of their cases and keeping the area in their home where those guitars are located at a sustained/constant humidity in the range of 40 - 60 percent regardless of the outside temperature, you are putting mould in your home...in most cases behind the walls...

Read here

Ok, I read the article and after listing the effects of high or low humidity in your home it said: "This information was culled from a study by ASHRAE. ASHRAE is a group of engineers that figures out HVAC at a high level. They found that 30-55% relative humidity is the sweet spot, 40-50% is best within that band."

These levels are exactly the levels that have been recommended by members of the Acoustic Guitar Forum over the years.

[Dbone]

Originally Posted by guitar george

Ok, I read the article and after listing the effects of high or low humidity in your home it said: "This information was culled from a study by ASHRAE. ASHRAE is a group of engineers that figures out HVAC at a high level. They found that 30-55% relative humidity is the sweet spot, 40-50% is best within that band."

These levels are exactly the levels that have been recommended by members of the Acoustic Guitar Forum over the years.

Hello there,

Thanks for your thoughts...

I think you might be missing the point I'm trying to make here. Let's take the 40-50% ideal range you are talking about...

I achieve that with my guitar cased using humidipacks in a localized manner (or whatever one's choice for in case humidification happens to be). I don't need to run the environment of my house outside the case at a sustained/regular 40-50% humidity over many years while it is -20 to -30 or more degrees celcious below zero outside...i.e.: Like I would need to do if my guitar might be hanging on a wall (hopefully not an outside one) or sitting on a stand. If I were to do that with regularity that is when sweating and mould behind my walls would become an issue over time. That is the part of the article that I was trying to get across.

Best of luck.

The reality is that many people do this. I get this and understand why. It is very annoying with many guitars etc...

I don't know about you, but I would love to live in a natural environment where humidity considerations are a non-issue. Unfortunately I don't.

I have a system that works for me all things considered, avoiding sustained over humidification, etc

Cheers

[menhir]

I didn't buy the guitar room hygrometer and humidifier for nothing.

My guitars are out of their cases on stands except for times when the humidity levels get so low that it overwhelms the humidifier's ability to deal with it. I also case them when I'm traveling and not around to fill the reservoirs. I can easily monitor and control the humidity levels and the guitars are available for use at my whim.

In their cases, I find myself checking the sound hole sponges regularly. While there's not a lot of effort involved, In a controlled humidified room environment, there's really no point.

Everyone's situation is different. I have no little humans running around the house and my dog doesn't touch anything that isn't his (We didn't teach him that...he's just wired that way. Good doggy. )

[Dbone]

Originally Posted by menhir

I didn't buy the guitar room hygrometer and humidifier for nothing.

My guitars are out of their cases on stands except for times when the humidity levels get so low that it overwhelms the humidifier's ability to deal with it. I also case them when I'm traveling and not around to fill the reservoirs. I can easily monitor and control the humidity levels and the guitars are available for use at my whim.

In their cases, I find myself checking the sound hole sponges regularly. While there's not a lot of effort involved, In a controlled humidified room environment, there's really no point.

Everyone's situation is different. I have no little humans running around the house and my dog doesn't touch anything that isn't his (We didn't teach him that...he's just wired that way. Good doggy. )

No, people do not buy humidifiers and hygrometers for nothing. They buy them to get humidity into their home . That person can do one of 3 things with that humidifier for the house and their health relative to the outside temperature. They can over humidify, under humidify, or humidify at a level that is appropriate relative to the outdoor temp.

The above is something one can do irrespective of whether or not they are living in the guitar world. Unfortunately the default for the guitar world is over humidifying for the house/health when folks insist on having guitars out of cases. That is a choice based on the fact that one is not casing combined with the fact that they need to avoid cracking their guitar in half.

Keeping your guitars in cases for kids that might knock them over, or dogs that might eat them, is a whole other conversation I also have to consider those reasons for casing instruments, but they are not my primary reasons for casing the instruments.

What I'm talking about here amounts to an inconvenient truth, but it is the reality of how things work for humidity relative to temperature. There is no way around it other than ignoring the ground truth on it...which a ton of people do because it is inconvenient and annoying...Again, I get it...

As an example of what one can consider doing (certainly don't have to, this is just an example):

I case my instruments so that they are fully protected between the ideal ranges of 45 - 55 % humidity when not in use. Outside of the case the global environment where my music room lives (basement of house) is always at an optimum relative humidity level that makes sense relative to the outside temperature (as is the rest of my house). I personally achieve this by using a central humidifier on my furnace that is smart enough to auto adjust humidity in the house in real time based on outdoor temperature changes (i.e.: sensor outside hooked up to system). These types of systems exist for a reason.

In my music room itself I will very briefly (this being the important word) over humidify with a small in room humidifier throughout the duration of a practice/play session (half hour, hour, whatever) so that when the instrument is out of the case it is in ideal conditions. So the instrument is in ideal conditions both when stored and when playing. Because the over humidification is not sustained it is not a problem. We over humidify in our homes all the time when we are cooking or showering. We're not putting mould in our house under those conditions because it is not sustained activity.

To make things even more convenient for myself the in room humidification in my music room itself is auto scheduled to come on and off relative to when I typically play/practice. When this scheduled humidification is not running (i.e.: outside of my practice windows) the music room is at whatever the ideal RH is for the outside temp (i.e.: due to the actions of my central humidifier on the furnace).

For me this is the right balance between reality, health, house, and guitar. None of these things are mutually exclusive in terms of importance ;-0

I wish ya well. Thanks for your thoughts my friend.

Part of me still thinks I should just give up this wood guitar thing and go carbon fibre. Can't do it in the end, at least exclusively, because I love me a good wooden guitar.

Cheers

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Dbone

In my music room itself I will very briefly (this being the important word) over humidify with a small in room humidifier throughout the duration of a practice/play session (half hour, hour, whatever) so that when the instrument is out of the case it is in ideal conditions. So the instrument is in ideal conditions both when stored and when playing.

So this is an area I'm not clear on. I only have one nice all-solid wood acoustic - I have another cheap laminated acoustic and a carbon fiber acoustic. But the all-solid acoustic lives in it's case with humidipaks which keep it at an optimal humidity level I'd say at least 20 hours per day on average, generally more because I play my other acoustics and electrics also.

So if I take it out to play and it's exposed to humidity levels in the low 30s and even down into the 20s, it's not gonna dry out and crack or bow in the space of a few hours (short of leaving it out in desert heat or a winter freeze). So I don't worry about the time I have it out and I'm playing it - I figure any little bit it dries out in that short period of time it's gonna more than replenish during the vast majority of the time it's in the case.

But you humidify your playing environment while you're playing? Do you feel that amount of time in a dryer than optimal environment is really gonna negatively impact the guitar?

You seem to have thought about this a lot, and I haven't all that much, so I'm interested in your thinking.

[TBman]

So today we're down to 19% rh. All the solid woods are cased. Just a few laminates out now on stands.

[Dbone]

Originally Posted by raysachs

So this is an area I'm not clear on. I only have one nice all-solid wood acoustic - I have another cheap laminated acoustic and a carbon fiber acoustic. But the all-solid acoustic lives in it's case with humidipaks which keep it at an optimal humidity level I'd say at least 20 hours per day on average, generally more because I play my other acoustics and electrics also.

So if I take it out to play and it's exposed to humidity levels in the low 30s and even down into the 20s, it's not gonna dry out and crack or bow in the space of a few hours (short of leaving it out in desert heat or a winter freeze). So I don't worry about the time I have it out and I'm playing it - I figure any little bit it dries out in that short period of time it's gonna more than replenish during the vast majority of the time it's in the case.

But you humidify your playing environment while you're playing? Do you feel that amount of time in a dryer than optimal environment is really gonna negatively impact the guitar?

You seem to have thought about this a lot, and I haven't all that much, so I'm interested in your thinking.

Yer not wrong man. That extra bit I'm doing is more in the anal direction. You found me out...lol...

I would agree with you in the end on the point I know yer getting at. It would be sustained exposure of the guitar to those conditions you are describing, not brief periods, that is dangerous.

For me it was just an extra step to protect my investment(s) over time. That's all. You are right though based on everything I have read. Just like over humidifying is only dangerous/unhealthy when it is sustained, risk to a guitar is only dangerous/unhealthy when the exposure is sustained.

I cannot dispute what you are saying. I just feel better knowing that I am exposing my expensive guitars to ideal conditions at all time. A personal choice, like many things in life.

Thanks for your thoughts.