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Double Bass Humidification

tsheldon

tsheldon

Jun 20, 2005
372
699
Western New York
#1
As fall approaches I find myself considering how I should humidity my basses in the coming seasons.

What is the state of the art in room humidification (no forced air so whole home is complicated)? And the best available ‘f’ hole type of case humidifier?

What else do I need to know about this topic?
 
#4
I’m not a fan of state of the art. It often breaks.

Forced air heating is incredibly efficient at drying the air in your home. I don’t know how you heat yours, but I heat mine with wood because it doesn’t suck moisture out of the air like modern heating does.

In six seasons here I’ve one small crack among multiple basses, during an absolutely savage winter.

If your body is happy, your bass is happy. If you get nosebleeds during the winter, your bass is in danger.
 
#6
I have a room humidifier I can run in my gear room that will keep the humidity between 45% and 55% as recommended. Overall that seems to be the best approach for my guitars and basses and this way I can keep them uncased and ready to play. Saves on having to make constant truss rod tweaks as well.

I only use D'Addario HumidiPaks with my acoustics and I favor those over sponges or other types since they can also regulate the RH inside the case. I don't feel solid body electrics need this kind of system.
 
#8
I use a Honeywell Quietcare humidifier with two big water tanks/reservoirs, and it does the trick just fine (general keep things between 40% - 50%). I have a hybrid and laminated bass, but come the new year I’ll be acquiring a fully carved instrument, so I’m glad I got into the habit of humidying, switching it filters, etc. early.

As for DE-humidification, I have a large LG air conditioner that happens to have a “dry” mode (you set the temp you want, it gets you there solely by dehumidifying the room). Works wonders, and I feel is even more effective at cooling the room.
 
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#9
The warmer the air, the greater quantity of water it takes to saturate it. (Relative humidity.) This is the reason fog is more apt to form in lower temps; the cooler air becomes saturated. I try to keep the bass room a couple of degrees cooler in wintertime to reduce the amount of water needed for humidification.

That logic doesn't work in summertime, though, because cooling the room with mechanical air conditioning draws moisture out of the air. I keep the air vents closed, and the room stays very stable at around 45% RH most days, while the remainder of the house is air conditioned.
 
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#11
The A/C unit removes moisture from the air. When the air cools, moisture condenses out on the evaporator fins, so the humidity in an air conditioned environment is usually low. Turn off the AC and the water in the unit will normally evaporate, raising the humidity
 
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#14
Think of the mechanical A/C unit like a big glass of chilled iced tea sitting out on a warm, humid day. The moisture in the air condenses in the chilled machine, as Neil describes, and is shunted away down the drain. So, even though cooler air takes less moisture to saturate, mechanical A/C has a net drying effect because of the condensation that takes place. Make sense?
 
#15
Neil Pye said:
The A/C unit removes moisture from the air. When the air cools, moisture condenses out on the evaporator fins, so the humidity in an air conditioned environment is usually low. Turn off the AC and the water in the unit will normally evaporate, raising the humidity
Click to expand...

Yes, I fully understand this. I was responding to a post which stated that raising the temperature dries the air, and I was pointing out that that is not necessarily the case.
 

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