Humidifiers and electric bass?

[Cam Buchanan]

Should I be using a humidifier with my instruments?? I’ve read a few conflicting articles.

I live in Colorado, and it’s super dry here. Especially with the furnace in the winter.. I keep the humidifier in my house cranked during the winter but ide still say the humidity level would be at 10% or so.

when I look at products at guitar center all I see is stuff to go in soundholes of acoustics. Which leads me to believe it’s not needed on my electrics. But articles I’ve read says the dryness could cause my paint to dry out and crack..

if it matters; I have a

2021 MusicMan Stingray
Taylor 314CE acoustic
1957 Gibson ES225TD semi hollow body.

the stingray and Taylor I bought here in Colorado, the Gibson was a family heirloom..(also I brought it with me when I moved from Texas where it was super humid, should I worry about it coming from the high humidity where it spent 58 years?)

I know I defiantly need to monitor the Taylor, wasn’t sure about the other two.

this became a recent concern to me after I bought a Kala uBass on marketplace that came from Oklahoma that ended up getting a bad case of fret sprout I had to fix.

 

[Means2nEnd]

40%-50% relative humidity is ideal for instruments. I have customer's acoustic guitars pile around in my shop all winter long with tops around the bridge plate pulling up and splits in ebony its really damaging to acoustic instruments the drastic differences from summer to winter. Acoustic seem to bear the worst damage by severe dryness of course. With solid body instruments fret sprout, loose frets, necks twisting and yes I have seen thick finishes 2K crack over wood that shrinks or just delaminate. It's not a death sentence but at minimum the Taylor but the Gibson would be a good idea I think too.

Where instruments have thin pieces of wood glued together as in the weakest points and when the joints shrink or expand for that matter is where the damage appears first usually. I am working with a acoustic luthier at the moment learning to bend sides and basics of acoustic guitar building and he had mentioned all those humidity packs alone in cases really do zero to help the guitar because in that dry of a situation the case will drink it all up and the air will pull it out of the case. Unless you put the whole case inside a trash bag with it inside it really is hard to have an impact in that dry of an environment and the same goes for here in PA at the moment. I have done a lot to keep my shop dry all summer for the woods and finishing as well for years. That said I have not done anything as of yet to keep my shop above 40% in the winter and that exact topic has been brought up by my luthier/teacher at the moment to add a simple humidifier to my whole shop and wood supply to run September to April or so. It's just a good thing to do however you do it but keep it consistent was the message. Mostly damage is worsened by taking on and expelling moisture at a rate the finish, glue, wood can't keep up with and the different components don't dance at the same speed either.

Instruments of wood are sort of alive always moving and shifting from different factors but keeping them in the safe zone keeps all of those things to a minimum. Those are nice instruments and nice investment worth taking care of. A good overall room hygrometer in your room, you keep your room good no need for things with water in them in your cases. I have seen terrible damage from those Planet Waves moisture pack that goes in the sound hole weep water over time in the case...hate those things. Good luck.

 

[Cam Buchanan]

40%-50% relative humidity is ideal for instruments. I have customer's acoustic guitars pile around in my shop all winter long with tops around the bridge plate pulling up and splits in ebony its really damaging to acoustic instruments the drastic differences from summer to winter. Acoustic seem to bear the worst damage by severe dryness of course. With solid body instruments fret sprout, loose frets, necks twisting and yes I have seen thick finishes 2K crack over wood that shrinks or just delaminate. It's not a death sentence but at minimum the Taylor but the Gibson would be a good idea I think too.

Where instruments have thin pieces of wood glued together as in the weakest points and when the joints shrink or expand for that matter is where the damage appears first usually. I am working with a acoustic luthier at the moment learning to bend sides and basics of acoustic guitar building and he had mentioned all those humidity packs alone in cases really do zero to help the guitar because in that dry of a situation the case will drink it all up and the air will pull it out of the case. Unless you put the whole case inside a trash bag with it inside it really is hard to have an impact in that dry of an environment and the same goes for here in PA at the moment. I have done a lot to keep my shop dry all summer for the woods and finishing as well for years. That said I have not done anything as of yet to keep my shop above 40% in the winter and that exact topic has been brought up by my luthier/teacher at the moment to add a simple humidifier to my whole shop and wood supply to run September to April or so. It's just a good thing to do however you do it but keep it consistent was the message. Mostly damage is worsened by taking on and expelling moisture at a rate the finish, glue, wood can't keep up with and the different components don't dance at the same speed either.

Instruments of wood are sort of alive always moving and shifting from different factors but keeping them in the safe zone keeps all of those things to a minimum. Those are nice instruments and nice investment worth taking care of. A good overall room hygrometer in your room, you keep your room good no need for things with water in them in your cases. I have seen terrible damage from those Planet Waves moisture pack that goes in the sound hole weep water over time in the case...hate those things. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply!

I’ve already got a humidifier maxed out for my house, which does help a little.

best I know I can do is keep humidifiers and hygrometers in the cases.

I bought the Taylor in 2018 and put some of the d’addario humidipacks in the case. Those are only supposed to last like 3 months, i was negligent and it’s been 4 years…I haven’t seen any signs of damage that I can tell so maybe I’m lucky there.

the Gibson I haven’t done anything to yet, no signs on damage, somewhere I read that due to the age the wood may have done all it’s moving it’s going to do.


Is there a downside to humidifiers in the electric bass case? Without them the hygrometer reads 20% max.

with a couple sponge kits I can get it to 55.
I’m just worried of doing more damage than good, perhaps causing corrosion or scratchy pots.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

To an extent, once it's adjusted to where you are at, there you are. So if you live where it's very dry, and your instruments have already adjusted to that, dragging them back up to 50% is not really going to "help" anything, and creates more headaches than letting them be. Don't take them on vacation to the gulf coast...