Guitar Humidification Tips to Protect Your Instrument

Keeping your guitar in the best condition possible, sometimes just doesn’t seem possible. If you live in a cold, wet climate, this is especially true. But believe it or not, a dry climate can be just as bad as a wet one.

It’s true! In fact, any extreme climate can affect your guitar in a negative way, whether it is an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. This means that, in the case of your guitar, you need to take control of the climate.

In this article, we will discuss guitar humidification, and how it can help you to extend the life and the playability of your instrument.

So after that introduction, you may be sitting there asking yourself, just how is dry climate bad for a guitar? After all, guitars are made of dry, cooked wood (in most cases, although not all).

Why Is It Important To Know The Climate?

Well, this is because wood reacts to dryness, just as it reacts to dampness. Damp weather causes your guitar’s wood to expand and swell, which makes the guitar’s shape distorted and can lead to rot within the wood.

Dry weather makes your guitar’s wood shrink down, which in turn can dry out the wood even further and make room for things such as termites, which will eat your guitar from the inside out. It may sound like a horror movie, and a cheesy one at that, but it is absolutely true; dry wood can house some pretty nasty surprises, just like damp wood.

Things To Do to Prevent Environmental Damage

If you think that you need a humidifier or a dehumidifier, make sure that you buy one that will work to your needs. You want a machine that you can control the settings on, as too much humidification or dehumidification is just as bad as having your guitar in an extreme climate.

If you live in a region where extreme compensations must be made, you will have to be on top of it. This means, making a schedule and adhering to it; changing the water at a set time on a set day regularly to assure that your guitar is in as consistent a climate as possible.

Fine Tune The Settings To Suit Your Local Climate

If you experience a dramatic weather change, make sure that you adjust the settings of your humidifier or dehumidifier to be compatible with the current weather. You don’t want to add to the extremity of the weather bad adding more dampness to damp weather, or more dryness to dry weather.

In the end, you know the climate in which you live better than anyone else. If you believe that a humidifier, or a dehumidifier, is what you need, then it is best that you look into the dependency of different brands and different models, as well as offered features.

Remember, by buying either a humidifier or a dehumidifier, you are making an investment to protect your guitar, so the best thing is to equal out the values between the two (i.e., don’t buy a five hundred dollar machine to protect a two hundred dollar guitar). Be practical. Good luck, and remember to always keep on top of water changes.

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