It's Time To Humidify, Boys and Girls!

[Bill Ashton]

Finally, my hygrometers are in agreement, household as well as "in case" humidity is dropping to below 40%, so the armada of Oasis humidifiers and distilled water has been deployed...the image is showing the over-night test to insure no "leakers," and two were removed from the roster

Here in New England, you sorta start to humidify when the heat goes on, but this has been a wierd year...still getting alarms from my D55 case that humidity is over 60%, with D'Addario packs in it...and thats why I don't quite trust them!

 

[Rayk]

I got mine going now as well though I started some months back .

 

[geoguy]

That's a new gizmo, to me.

I would be concerned about the height of the hygrometer above the strings. Wouldn't that be jammed pretty hard against the closed case?

 

[beecee]

Most of my guitars are on two string swing guitar 5 unit racks in a small room that is keeping 45% with two hygrometers in synch. Small room humidifier does the trick. Humidifier was cranked up last week.

 

[Wellington]

So far my house is hanging around 45/40 so I'm still fine. We've got a fair bit of snow already but it's been a really mild last couple weeks here so the humidity hasn't dropped too far yet. I have a house humidifier on my furnace system that helps give a boost, but it's still not enough when it gets too cold here but it buys me time!

 

[GGJaguar]

Sponges at the ready!

 

[Rayk]

That's a new gizmo, to me.

I would be concerned about the height of the hygrometer above the strings. Wouldn't that be jammed pretty hard against the closed case?

Possibly. Foam case at least the Guild one closes on top of the strings so it won’t work in it .
Most hard case seem work with only few touching the meter . The only one that’s has a wee bit of resistance is with my CO-2 which I have tuned a bit high so the string tension is causing a tad of extra pressure on the case top but I close it fine and have been using that guitar every day for a while with no issues .

I have about 7 of these and 3 more . Also they read different sometimes but I did the salt test in a zip lock bag to double check the gauges are calibrated right they all read 70% which is correct so they’ve been accurate so far .

They do have a side mount one for the sound hole but I can’t recommend that one as it tends not to stay on . Now maybe they upgraded it but I’m not sure .

Other then I like them no drip though you can over fill them in that case just shake the excess water out and your good to go .

 

[portsider]

One of the reasons to be happy to live in Florida.

 

[Neal]

I can tell when it is time to break out the humidifier when my guitars that always stay in tune start to drift out over the course of a few days.

I keep everything I own out on floor racks, so I can just grab and play. I picked up one last week I had not played in a while, and it was a half-step flat. Picked up another and it was a half-step flat. And so on.

It makes sense when you think about it. With less water in the wood, the guitar starts to shrink just a bit, reducing the string tension.

 

[chazmo]

Thanks for the reminder, Bill. Yup, my room humidifier has been running all week and will continue through the winter.

You're right that we had some more humid weather than normal recently, but... well, winter is here.