@DirtDog
I keep my basses in my den, a room that is a converted garage. It tends to run cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer because it only has one vent. I usually keep my basses either on a rack or in bags.
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Green Wood: Time to Cut Bait!
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
@DirtDog
I keep my basses in my den, a room that is a converted garage. It tends to run cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer because it only has one vent. I usually keep my basses either on a rack or in bags.
Fair. Let's not store our basses on a stand right in front of an air conditioner vent. That's kind of an additional variable though, wouldn't you agree?
Secondly, insulation doesn’t quite work that way. A thing doesn't get warmer because the blanket heats it up; the blanket (or the case in your example) prevents body heat from escaping. A bass creates no body heat so there's nothing to insulate there. It could be a barrier against wind or something, but again let’s not add that variable into it.
Third, a bass case isn't sealed in any way, nor does it have a mechanism to treat the air inside of it. So there's no difference in humidity or temperature inside versus outside of the case once it sits in a room long enough for the air to equalize.
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Unless you have a pelican / tactical style case, the same humidity / lack of humidity is hitting the instrument in the case as hanging on a hanger or resting on a stand. None of the standard cases are air tight.
I am freaked out at how stable the two Squier VM Jazz V necks are that I have. I used to keep one in my work truck 24/7/365 for 4 years, and I haven’t needed to touch the truss rod for the last 2 years. [maybe it’s the poly coating on the entire neck that protects it better?]
I got a Warmoth roasted maple fretless neck in 2018, and earlier this year I had to tighten the truss rod and found that it got maxed out and still had more relief than I wanted.
I wound up installing about 5 #10 brass washers under the nut for more adjustment (Warmoth actually approved this method with me) and all is good now. We’ll see what happens over summer and next winter...
Yeah, so I guess I’m saying that wood’s goons do what wood’s gonna do. I thought the roasted neck will never need adjustment, but I was wrong. It moves as much as any other neck - but much more than my Squier necks that seem to be rock solid.
I don’t even want to mention my 25 year old 4-piece G&L neck. I don’t think I touched that truss rod in 10 years. I think the most stable necks will be a multi-laminate, regardless of roasting or toasting...
I got a Warmoth roasted maple fretless neck in 2018, and earlier this year I had to tighten the truss rod and found that it got maxed out and still had more relief than I wanted.
I wound up installing about 5 #10 brass washers under the nut for more adjustment (Warmoth actually approved this method with me) and all is good now. We’ll see what happens over summer and next winter...
Yeah, so I guess I’m saying that wood’s goons do what wood’s gonna do. I thought the roasted neck will never need adjustment, but I was wrong. It moves as much as any other neck - but much more than my Squier necks that seem to be rock solid.
I don’t even want to mention my 25 year old 4-piece G&L neck. I don’t think I touched that truss rod in 10 years. I think the most stable necks will be a multi-laminate, regardless of roasting or toasting...
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Yeah, fifty miles more east, Mt. Vernon, IL... it's basically Texas.
Exactly. Both of my basses at home stay on a guitar/bass boat in my office/studio. They aren’t near vents or air registers. And even if they stayed in the cases, those are soft-shell cases that wouldn’t offer any sealing anyway. My Mike Lull is quite stable, even with the crazy weather this year including the ice storm we had (me and my basses stayed at my girlfriend’s house that week. There was no way my old house and old heating system would keep up with that cold!). I also have an ESP LTD fretless and it’s pretty much as stable as the Lull. So far, the necks on both basses haven’t done anything unusual.
I'd agree that your odds of 'bum wood' might be a bit better in the bottom of the market like my Squiers or others in that price range, in my experience, occasionally EVERY bass builder from A to Z winds making a few where the wood waits until it's in a finished instrument to behave badly and eke its revenge.
I know I've bought some new basses where I chased the setup around for the first year or so until it finally got used to its new home, and some that were fine out of the box and would take forever to grow a need for the even the slightest touchup.
I know I've bought some new basses where I chased the setup around for the first year or so until it finally got used to its new home, and some that were fine out of the box and would take forever to grow a need for the even the slightest touchup.
AC is to illustrate the environment in a way you can experience. But don’t focus on trying to pick holes in the lighthearted method of illustrating the point for you. Air inside the case is 1 temp, air outside the case is another temp. The better the insulator the longer it takes for those two to equalize.
Every case I’ve ever seen closes. It does not need to be air tight to insulate, and insulation is not only for body heat, there is a lot of reading you’ll be able to do on it if you’re interested. I would recommend it.
You are correct that left alone and given a long enough period of time any insulated container may reach equilibrium with its surrounding environment. Again, the benefit of insulation is the fluctuations are not as rapid or severe. Insulation slows the time it takes for that to happen.
A Wiseman named Erlewine once told me; "Never put your guitar where you wouldn't put a 2 year old!"
I've found that advise has worked for me over time. I also tend to shy away from cheap junk after my first "Aspen" Bass. After that it's been professional instruments and no personal horror stories.
When I do my own setups. I will take a week to do it as I adjust the neck. It hangs on a stand. 1/4 - 1/2 turn on the truss rod and let it sit. Check it the next morning. Repeat as required for best results. Same with a strobe. I also NEVER put the neck on a bench rest. The neck is always free floating.
Of course this is a wood thing not a graphite process except the neck floating during a strobe.
The Bass was alive before it was a Bass! It doesn't know it's a Bass now....
I've found that advise has worked for me over time. I also tend to shy away from cheap junk after my first "Aspen" Bass. After that it's been professional instruments and no personal horror stories.
When I do my own setups. I will take a week to do it as I adjust the neck. It hangs on a stand. 1/4 - 1/2 turn on the truss rod and let it sit. Check it the next morning. Repeat as required for best results. Same with a strobe. I also NEVER put the neck on a bench rest. The neck is always free floating.
Of course this is a wood thing not a graphite process except the neck floating during a strobe.
The Bass was alive before it was a Bass! It doesn't know it's a Bass now....
Turnaround
Commercial User
It would not be good to offer that advice to me. I have always said that young children are never a problem if you keep them in the freezer.
Off topic...but I wrote a post a few years ago about this very issue with high temperatures in shipping containers coming from Asia and such...all the responses I got here on TB were pointing to me not knowing what I’m talking about and that I’m an idiot.
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Pelican cases and similar have a membrane to facilitate exchange of gasses. You wouldn’t want them totally air tight or you’d get condensation problems, etc. Even the waterproof cases I'm aware of have a valve.
But all cases do buffer from humidity and temperature fluctuations. Run the shower, open the windows when it’s raining, etc. inside a case the instrument sees much less extreme swings from that because it is insulated.
Key word is buffer. They slow the process. Thats all the need to do to make the difference that they make.
We are subjected to fairly severe winters and hot/humid summers in this part of PA and my instruments have shown various levels of "protest" against the drastic changes that can sometimes occur within a day.
While I try to keep the humidity at 40-50% at all times and have a humidifier running more often than not, some of them react in a somewhat surprising manner.
The most "unstable" one is my old hollow-body Guild 6-string. None of my acoustics - I've got 4 - are as sensitive to temperature/humidity changes as that old girl is.
On the opposite side of the spectrum are my guitar-playing-son's MIK Epiphone Les Paul and my '63 Gibson EB-0 which never seem to need an adjustment of any kind. The rest of "the crew" behaves largely depending on how severe the changes are, but without any really drastic shifts.
My $0.02 only...
While I try to keep the humidity at 40-50% at all times and have a humidifier running more often than not, some of them react in a somewhat surprising manner.
The most "unstable" one is my old hollow-body Guild 6-string. None of my acoustics - I've got 4 - are as sensitive to temperature/humidity changes as that old girl is.
On the opposite side of the spectrum are my guitar-playing-son's MIK Epiphone Les Paul and my '63 Gibson EB-0 which never seem to need an adjustment of any kind. The rest of "the crew" behaves largely depending on how severe the changes are, but without any really drastic shifts.
My $0.02 only...
...I will never knowingly purchase a Bass that has been in an island environment.
Again, no issues to speak of beyond changing string gauges or a new bridge/nut installation. No crazy necks, bodies separating or other glue joint issues, personally.
Again, no issues to speak of beyond changing string gauges or a new bridge/nut installation. No crazy necks, bodies separating or other glue joint issues, personally.
I have had great luck with five string Squier necks too. They are big well hewn chunks of maple.
I agree - I like my roasted necks, but the one that I have that isn't roasted is a Mighty Mite fretless (Warmoth doesn't do ebonol fingerboards), and I applied the same logic - even if I have to buy 3, it's not more than one really good neck costs. In this case, I won the lottery - neck "1 is straight after 5 years. I do think that your mental approach is a bit flawed, in that once you buy 3 or 4 necks (even cheap ones) one of them is bound to not twist (or twist so little that it plays just fine) - maybe you'll want to level the frets or something, but I'd guess you will eventually, assuming you take decent care of things, get a good neck.
I am wary of the combination of Asian made, low price point, and shallow neck profiles. But I own a few and they are surprisingly stable.
In arid Colorado, you can adopt one of two mindsets:
1. Become the Humidity King, ensuring that every environment your bass is in is climate controlled no matter how many humidor devices you need to employ, how much effort, and how many hours it takes to monitor the humidity and ensure your basses and guitars are at the perfect humidity level.
2. The instrument either adapts, or it twists and becomes unsalvageable, and wasn't meant to be. Chuck it.
I'm firmly in the second camp, but ironically, 99.999% of my basses and guitars over the years have adapted just fine.
Honestly, I sympathize with you humidity level chasers out there, it's a tall order. I'm moving to Florida soon, and they tell me high humidity environments are far more challenging, especially when combined with salty sea air. Selling off my nice stuff and taking the low budge stuff down there just to be on the safe side.
In arid Colorado, you can adopt one of two mindsets:
1. Become the Humidity King, ensuring that every environment your bass is in is climate controlled no matter how many humidor devices you need to employ, how much effort, and how many hours it takes to monitor the humidity and ensure your basses and guitars are at the perfect humidity level.
2. The instrument either adapts, or it twists and becomes unsalvageable, and wasn't meant to be. Chuck it.
I'm firmly in the second camp, but ironically, 99.999% of my basses and guitars over the years have adapted just fine.
Honestly, I sympathize with you humidity level chasers out there, it's a tall order. I'm moving to Florida soon, and they tell me high humidity environments are far more challenging, especially when combined with salty sea air. Selling off my nice stuff and taking the low budge stuff down there just to be on the safe side.
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It's quite scary to find out that your instrument warps after a while just because of the climate change, I am so sorry.
I hope this never happens to me and I have read so many stories of people buying an instrument from some warmer climate and having it transferred somewhere colder like the USA or EU... sheesh.
I hope this never happens to me and I have read so many stories of people buying an instrument from some warmer climate and having it transferred somewhere colder like the USA or EU... sheesh.
