Guitars and weather

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tjohnston

tjohnston

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I often hear people talking about using a humidifier to keep an acoustic guitar from drying out. My question is in reference to the opposite sitiuation. Here in central florida its hotter than hell. It gets up to one hundred degrees everyday in the summer. It rains off and on all day. It will be 98 degrees and raining at the same time. What does 100% humidity do to a guitar. Also what is the optimal temp. to store guitars and recording equipment?
 
im not sure about temp. but usual recommended humity is 40% -55%.
 
Constant 100% humidity on a solid-wood acoustic guitar will make it bloated. Not sure how you can really fix that without putting it in a special room.
 
My old O-15 Martin spent years 20 through 35 on the windward side of Oahu in Hawaii.

No humidity control... and it rained nearly every day in the valley we lived.

No discernable damage to said git-fiddle.
 
You need a dehumidifier. You want to keep your humidity in the 40-50% range. I live in the desert and have the opposite sitiuation that you have but keep the room where I have my guitars at 42% humidity. Do you have a hygrometer? I would not screw around with it...get a dehumidifier. Better to be safe!
 
It's been my experience (46 years of guitar playing) that a severe change in enviornment causes the most damage to acoustic instruments. They don't like big changes. In other words if your guitar stays put in central Florida and out of the sun it should be fine, although a little tubby sounding from all the humidity. If you took that same guitar out here to my desert in summer conditions it would be kindling in 24 hours.

Personally I wouldn't try to de-humidify it, cause you'd creating a false enviornment. But if a dry weather front goes through or go anywhere it's dry, put it in a case with a humidifyer so that it can slowly adjust to the changes.
 
most of the info i've read says that in the vicinity of 50% humidity is the best for a solid-wood acoustic. i only have cheap plywood guitars, and they'll be alright almost anywhere, anytime, but they aren't the same. roughly 50% will not steer you wrong. i'll say that give or take 10% will not hurt too badly.
 
Temperature should be around 70 degrees with 40 - 50% humidity.
 
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