It may come as a surprise, but your guitar is made out of wood. We know that wood will naturally acclimate to whatever environment it is placed in. This could make for a bad day if that wooden guitar gets placed in very dry situation. Issues that could arise are shrinking and twisting necks and fretboards, lifting frets, lifting and cracked bridges, sinking tops, and top cracks. All of these can be avoided with proper humidity care.
Humidity and Temperature
Acoustic and semi-hollow guitars are at a higher risk for damage due to the nature of these instruments having thin walls of wood. Electric guitars can also be effected. The best way to combat this is to keep the relative humidity in the rooms, or places where the instruments are stored, between 40%-50%. The best way to monitor this is to get a hygrometer. These can be relatively inexpensive and are available on Amazon or at a local small business.
Knowing the relative humidity is only half of the battle. There are plenty of cutting edge technological advanced personal instrument humidifiers on the market. Whichever one speaks to you doesn’t really matter, just as long as you use it! You can also use a room humidifier, or go all out and get a home humidifier that gets hooked up to your house furnace. Which brings me to the reason why the humidity drops.
Your homes heating system, whether it be a furnace, or boiler or whatever, is designed to circulate warm air. It does this by heating the air up, which unfortunately cooks the moisture out. Especially during the winter months, when your heat is on, is when lack of humidity is a threat.
Outcomes
Prevention is the name of the game. If overlooked it’s not that big of a deal, most instruments can be repaired after they dry out. It can just turn into the difference between a $100-$200 repair or walking to your sink and filling up some stuff with water. Either way, I will be here at Neat Guitars to help in any way. Happy Hydrating!
Neat Guitars 