The (end of) Winter Blues

Ahhh, spring time... the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the guitars are healing...

Huh?

Yup... it's a good time of year to be an acoustic guitar repair person.  The inevitable line-up of cracked solid-wood guitars that appears at so many acoustic guitar warranty centers in March and April (particularly in colder, drier climates - hello Canada and Northern States) is just as much a sign of the passing of another harsh winter as are the pot holes on our roads and our chapped lips.

But why? Do months of being cooped up inside lead to an abundance of normally serene acoustic musicians to unleash their inner Pete Townsend and smash their instruments in celebration of approaching summer?

I doubt it.

It's all about humidity.

Humidity. Hard to think of another single word that unifies the long list of otherwise fiercely competitive acoustic guitar companies as much this one. But as we end another winter season, it's clear that the manufacturer-lead mission to educate guitar owners about the importance of humidiying solid-wood guitars - call it the "humidity crusade" - is still very much an ongoing challenge.

As there are already countless articles availble online describing in great detail the concept of relative humidity, and why (and how) low humidity in particular negatively affects a guitar, I'll try to sum it up in one long, comma-spliced sentence: A low relative humidity level (which occurs especially during winter), means the air is more dry, which causes the solid woods of a guitar to lose moisture and shrink, leading to all kinds of messy situations like cracking and warping of the body, sharp fret ends, lacquer cracks, fret buzz, etc, etc.

But why is such a simple yet crucial element of acoustic guitar care all too often overlooked?

Most manufacturers will admit it probably comes down to consumer education. Many guitar owners simply aren't aware of the benefits of keeping their guitar properly humidifed... or more importantly, the consequences of not. I've heard many a new guitar owner surprised to learn that the extra money they spent to obtain an all solid-wood guitar did not necessarily mean they were purchasing a more durable instrument. That's the payoff, of course... Solid-wood guitars are sonically and tonally superior to laminate wood instruments - but they also require a higher degree of care than their lesser-expensive counterparts.

On the other hand, with solid-wood guitars increasingly affordable, the price paid for on a mid-range solid-wood guitar might not always be enough drive the purchaser to fully research proper care techniques.

As a manufacturer, getting past the consumer awareness issue is by far our biggest challenge. Once a guitar owner is aware of the importance of proper humidification (whether they've learned the easy way or the hard way ), keeping their guitar humidified does not require a lot of money or effort. There are plenty of different options available. The simplest is to store the guitar in its case when not in use, and to use a soundhole humidifier. A small cigar hygrometer inside your case will tell you if you're doing your job (at room temperature , the relative humidity level inside the case should be kept between 40% - 55%).

It's commonly said that if you're comfortable in your environment, your guitar will be too... that's OK in general, but some of us may have adapted our own selves to feel quite content even in drier winter conditions - while our guitars have not. In more challenging climates, better to be safe than sound. Humidifier + hygrometer = happy guitar. 

(I write this from the perspective of someone who lives in a colder, drier climate - where the greater risk is of low humidity levels. Of course, too much humidity can also wreak havoc on solid-wood instruments... so if you're reading this from a wet climate (where regular RH levels are 60% and up), reducing your guitar's humidity exposure becomes the task. Silica packets, or other moisture absorbing materials, are the way to go.)

Read up on the JLD bridge system as used on Breedlove guitars. I've ordered a couple to install on my 45 & 1000 Heritage series Tanglewoods which suffer badly from excess humidity around the bridge even though I use Extra Light (10-47) strings AND detune 1 semitone! I'll post the results when I'm done.

written by Michael Davis, Sun, 06 Jun 2010 14:43:09