Humidifiers and ABG's

[eSmith]

Hello, I have a few questions regarding humidifiers and thought the Luthiers on TB would be just the people to ask.

(Moderators, please relocate as you deem appropriate)

So, I have an Acoustic Bass Guitar (Victor Bailey Fender 4 string) and I live in Alberta, Canada (Think VERY dry climate)

I bought my guitar new and would really like to take care of it and I bacame aware of humidifiers and thought if they are needed anywhere, it would be here. So I went out looking for one and at the local music store and they recommended the Oaisis which had two models availiable, the regular and the Plus, with 50% more evaporation...

Here's a link:

http://oasishumidifiers.com/plus.html

So anyway, I got it home, got a jug of distilled water and filled it up and placed it on the guitar. Now, I usually hang the guitar on the wall but the guy at the store said leave it in it's case when using the humidifer. I only have a soft sided case and hate knocking the thing out of tune using it so I thought, a simple black garbage bag over the body and a strip of velcro holding it at the neck would be better at holding in the moisture than a soft sided case and I wouldn't have to constantly retune.

So, my question to all of you is, am I doing it wrong? Is there a chance I can over humidify the wood and ruin something? What is the proper humidity level I should target?


The history:
I got the guitar around June and it has been in a dry environment since then. I got the humidifier at the beginning of the week and it's been in the bag now for three days. I have taken it out of the bag for a ferw minutes each day while I refilled the device. There is a noticable amount evaporating daily.

Anyone have any advice, is there anything I should be concerned about?

Thanks in advance,

-eSmith.

[stepswork4me]

I'm no luthier, but it would seem to me that having this inside of something that can't "breathe" could cause some issues with the metal parts of the bass or even short out the electronics if it's acoustic electric.

[Joshua]

Tough call for the perfect forum, let's try it here.

[eSmith]

Never thought of rust..... Worthy consideration though.

I do have it in a bag because I've gone months where it would be doing nothing but drying out, My concern is it will dry to the point of shrinking the wood and spliting the glue joints.

Of course if the fix cause it to swell up beyond it's size the glue would break also. (I'm assuming all of this so please correct me where required)

I want to ditch the bag and get a hardshell case but it is a very thin body for an ABG and finding a case is harder than I thought.

What I am thinking is maybe one or two nights every week or two just to keep is somewhere in the zone so neither extreme takes over.

Again, if I knew what to do I wouldn't be posting here so if anyone has any advice you will find I will accept it with appreatiation.

-eSmith.