Temperature cut off for acoustics

[davismanLV]

As many of you know, keeping things humidified in Las Vegas is really difficult. We recently put all the guitars in the interior "atrium" which is smack in the middle of the living area. It is easy to humidify with the slider closed and looks good with the guitars in it. I'm super happy with this new thing.....



Now for the downside. This atrium is in the middle of the house which is (of course) air conditioned. However the ceiling is almost 18 feet up and vented to the outside. So with the slider closed, humidifying is easy. Yet when the slider is closed it gets HOT in there!!! Not like outside hot but hot enough that I'm wondering.... at what temperature do you say this is gonna be bad for my guitars?? I just ordered a digital thermometer/hygrometer from Amazon and that will be here Thursday. When I open the door to fill the humidifier it seems super hot, but then the humidity which I'm not used to, makes it worse. So at what temperature would you say this is gonna hurt my guitars? 80? 90? HELP!!

 

[HeyMikey]

Looks like a steam room in there, or maybe the photo is deceiving. Probably not a good situation if either the humidity or temp gets too high. I would venture a guess that room temperature in the 60’s or 70’s is good but anything into the 80’s plus is not.

Being a furniture guy would you think that high temps cause glue joints to start loosening, or tight joints to swell and lead to cracks? I imaging it’s the same for guitars.

Looking forward to hearing from the pros.

 

[fronobulax]

Guild says 70 degrees F is ideal. See https://guildguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019_Guild_Owner_Manual_092118_spreads.pdf

But reading what they wrote, relative humidity of 40-50% seems more important. I think from previous discussions too hot causes glue failures and too dry causes cracks. I think regluing is cheaper and easier. I'd say if you are comfortable with the temperature then so is your guitar so no more than 80% F for regular storage seems like a reasonable plan.

 

[chazmo]

You could probably go warmer than 80, Tom, but I don't really know when the glue starts to get soft. Might be a good question for Titebond if you give them a call, although most of your axes there are probably put together with hide glue, Tom.

I remember when you posted this picture that I was a little worried about putting them in an Atrium, particularly in LV.

 

[West R Lee]

My other favorite maker says 72 degrees. There are some beauties in there Tom.

West

 

[davismanLV]

Looks like a steam room in there, or maybe the photo is deceiving. Probably not a good situation if either the humidity or temp gets too high. I would venture a guess that room temperature in the 60’s or 70’s is good but anything into the 80’s plus is not.

Being a furniture guy would you think that high temps cause glue joints to start loosening, or tight joints to swell and lead to cause cracks? I imaging it’s the same for guitars.

Looking forward to hearing from the pros.

HAAAAAA HAAAAAA!! Don't worry, Mike. I just filled the humidifier and when I opened the slider it was at 40%. Then with the slider open long enough to fill the reservoir (like 2 minutes) it dropped down to 26!! It's THAT dry here. So I'm worried about the trade off. I've left the slider open to cool it down right now but then the humidity just DROPS!! Maybe a small space cooler or something? This city in summer just SUCKS the electricity like crazy. It's currently 110 at 6:30 and a moist 7% RH!!

 

[davismanLV]

When I was a kid growing up in Southern California we didn't have central air conditioning and in the summer it would get to 90 in the house and none of our furniture or piano or other stuff fell apart but these are my guitars so I'm sorta protective of them, right?

 

[Stuball48]

Great looking group but you may have a couple too many to humidify. To ease your mind, I will take numbers 3 and 4 guitars in the back.
It is nice to walk by and pick one up.
Beautiful!!

 

[Neal]

Does the sun ever shine directly into that room?

 

[davismanLV]

Does the sun ever shine directly into that room?

No. Skylights let light in but there's no direct sunlight ever. Hey Neal, do skylights normally filter out UV rays? I kinda doubt it. That could be something, huh?

 

[davismanLV]

Great looking group but you may have a couple too many to humidify. To ease your mind, I will take numbers 3 and 4 guitars in the back.
It is nice to walk by and pick one up.
Beautiful!!

Kind of you to ease my burden. You're a true friend!!

 

[Stuball48]

It hurts to see friends struggle with burdens. I help when I am able. LoL

Kind of you to ease my burden. You're a true friend!!

 

[Cougar]

Wow, what a nice group! But Vegas, 110 outside, oof!

 

[Boneman]

It’s not so much the temperature but rH, although I wouldn’t chance it anyway out where u are. As nice as they look laid out, I learned my lesson here, and so if it were me, I’d keep them in their humidified cases and not rely on a room humidifier. Good luck

 

[bobouz]

75 degrees, because I’m guessing a guitar would quite likely enjoy my own personal temperature cut-off!

 

[SFIV1967]

My appartment gets hot im summer, sometimes up to 88F. (no aircondition here!) But guitars are in their case mostly which insulates as well. So aroud 90 F is probably the maximum I would be comfortable with having the guitar outside but even at that temperature with sufficient humidity in the room I would not see a problem with the glue. You need to go much higher (like in the trunk of a car) to damage the guitar.

Ralf

 

[davismanLV]

Thanks for all the info and replies. I realize this inferno isn't something that most of you deal with. I have another whole house humidifier I could stick in there so I could maybe leave the door open more. For now the door is staying open a lot more to keep it cooler. Of course, then the humidity drops down immediately. Never thought much about this kinda stuff in California but then a lot of that was ignorance. In the summer with the A/C running constantly inside I hate to think was the RH was in there!! It's the whole ignorance is bliss vs. knowledge is power thing.

Also, the router quit last night and it was too dark and I was too tired to mess with it. Now I got it back running again. Imagine the HEAT and no internet?? Nope!!

 

[thunder22]

I would put them back in the cases and use in case humidifiers... just my .02

 

[davismanLV]

I love my guitars out where I can see them. I know this has caused trouble with people before but I keep 'em out where it's easy to grab one and play. They're all in different tunings and if I had to haul a case out and open up four or five guitars just to randomly play through some songs, that'd cause me to play even LESS!!!

 

[FNG]

I'd be hard pressed to leave guitars in a non-airconditioned space in the desert.