Humidity and Guitars

As some of you might have heard, it's very wet down the east coast of Australia at the moment.



Thankfully it is not as serious in Melbourne as it is in Queensland where many people have died or are missing in the floods.

The weather system bringing all the rain has made it hellishly warm and humid, and some of my instruments have reacted unkindly to the moisture in the air. The worst affected is my S-500 where there is now zero clearance between the the first fret and the high E string. The B-string also buzzes like a sitar. I suspect that a minor twist in the neck has developed as the wood expands. To various degrees all my instruments are sticky to the touch due to moisture having condensed on them. Most of the doors in my house won't close either due to expansion! These are minor inconveniences though compared to losing your whole house under water, and for that I am thankful.

Has anybody had any experience with very high humidity affecting their guitars?

What happened? Did it fix itself when the weather cleared? How long did it take?

This is the first time I've experienced these phenomena so I'm keen to be educated.

Possibly your neck's relief may need adjusting. Usually weather swings do affect guitar necks and bodies but seldom nothing this severe. You shouldn't need to pay any attention to your guitars other than that. Maybe it needs a neck adjustment. If you do your own setups, I would loosen your truss rod nut 1/4 turn and test play. If you aren't certain about doing your setups you might take your guitar down to your music store's tech for his help. Tools needed would be a capo, leaf type feeler gauges, truss rod wrench, etc.

Glenn

I hope the weather relents down there. I know that there are dehumidifiers for cases. I have no idea if they would help in an extreme situation like you are in. Hope someone else can actually be of assistance.

As an aside, a local music store here in helena is always 'up-selling' these to people who buy expensive guitars. It's literally a desert here! We get about 10 inches of precip/annually. A vast majority of that in the winter as snow. You need a dehumidifier hear like you need an extra butthole.

Maybe we should start a drive to round up all of these that have been sold here and send them to California and Australia!

Forgot to say that our hopes and prayers are with those having flooding problems, there is nothing worse than to lose your belongings. Here is our country's heartland (USA, Chillicothe, MO.) we are having huge snows and zero temps at night which is a picnic compared to your area.

Glenn

I noticed that my guitar had gone out of tune slightly last night, which doesn't happen very often.

I leave my guitars in their cases and have a packet of that moisture absorbing silica stuff (like the ones inside the packets of tortillas, only larger) in them, and that seems to help as they aren't sticky when they come out of their cases. I wish I knew where to buy them, the ones in the my have been there since I got the guitars.

Please let there be a cool and dry change this evening...

Please let there be a cool and dry change this evening...

Amen to that brother....

Thanks for your replies everyone. I'm going to put my guitars back in their cases with the silica gel pouches for the time being. I'll wait for the weather to calm down before I go tweaking truss rods, adjusting actions etc. etc.

Jamie, those moisture absorbing silica gel crystals can be regenerated by leaving them in an oven at 100C for an hour or so. Sometimes the crystals in the pouches are moisture indicating - they're pink when they're exhausted (i.e. saturated with water) and blue when they're active. I'm a chemist by profession and there's always been a stack of silica gel in the labs I've worked in. I just take the small amounts I need from the 20kg drums. I can find out where to get it if you're interested. It's very, very cheap but I'm not sure what the minimum order amount is.

Jamie, those moisture absorbing silica gel crystals can be regenerated by leaving them in an oven at 100C for an hour or so.

Thanks Phil, that's a great tip. I'll give it a go this afternoon

I had a friend who purchased a Tele from someone living in a USA desert area (who also shipped it with a HUGE moisture absorbing gel pack in the case.) When it arrived (in Tasmania, Australia), it was dried out badly & barely playable. He was arguing for some money back, when over the course of the week, the guitar soaked up some Tassie moisture out of the air & magically returned to perfect playability.

I'd put a moisture absorber in the case for sure, but perhaps a modestly sized one.

Philby, sorry to hear about the conditions you are experiencing down under. We had an all time record snowfall in December in Minneapolis and the east coast, west coast and I believe most of the US has seen strange weather this winter. I believe if you guitars are allowed to acclimate naturally as the air begins to dry out, they may very well return to normal. I would not do any adjusting or do too much to speed the drying process. Drying too quickly may cause more warping and it could be permanent. Hope that everything soon returns to normal. The problem with the weather patterns that we are experiencing, is what is going to be the new normal?? -- Have a great day--- Darwin

If you need something more than a little desiccant packet, you can purchase small rechargeable dehumidifiers online. Probably one sized for a cedar chest or small closet. The one we use in our bathroom at home, the granules turn a different color when they're saturated, then you just plug it in to an outside outlet to drive the moisture back out and it's ready to go again - this is the one we have, works great: http://www.amazon.com/Eva-dry-EDV--Renewable-Wireless-Dehumidifer/dp/B000H0XFD2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295419926&sr=8-2. Not sure if they make them in 220v for Australia? But they're pretty cool...just another idea for you. Good luck!

Not sure if they make them in 220v for Australia?

From the description:
There are no batteries required or cords to plug in, the unit works without power

So it should work for Australia too, but
The unit will adsorb approximately 8-10 ounces of moisture (depending on humidity levels this should take between 6 - 8 weeks).

In the meantime the guitar may have been fallen apart.

But at least it's:
100% wireless

So I will not surprised, when I next get wireless Tomatoes and Potatoes offered at the super market.

Did you link the right product?

You still need a power outlet to plug it in when you are ready to remove the moisture the unit has collected. The one I posted is probably too large to use for a guitar case, but they have smaller ones that are cheaper that would probably work really well so at least you get the idea. They work great for us. Just throwing it out there...

Did you link the right product?

Yes, but the next size down would probably work better for a guitar case and it's cheaper too.

You still need a power outlet to plug it in when you are ready to remove the moisture the unit has collected.

OK, I see.