Humidity level for winter

[saltydude]

40-50%, so 45%

30% or below is bad

^^^^———this right here. Don’t worry about forcing humidity. Get the appropriate humidifier for the space and try to keep it at 40-45%.
My humidifier is small and inadequate. All my basses are huddled around it and I’ve had to significantly tighten all their truss rods. This is abnormally dry weather in most parts of the US presently.

 

[JTE]

Do you have an acoustic string instrument with solid wood (as opposed to laminated wod)? 45 - 65% RH to keep the wood from drying out and cracking.

A solid body instrument wI'll be much more forgiving, but you still want to be in that same range. It'll keep the neck more stable, and prevent dealing with fret-sprout on newer instruments that weren't properly dried before fretting.

 

[mbasile]

Dissenting opinion:

If the guitar cannot live in the same environment that I live in I don't want that guitar. Neither should you.

Is the guitar going to fly apart because the humidity drops to ten percent? No, it will not. Don't believe it? Ask anyone who lives with guitars in the desert. Same goes for guitars that are in humid environments.

The worst that can happen is that after the first year, or in rare cases a second year, the frets will require trimming at the fingerboard edges. Except in the rarest of circumstances once the task is performed it will not have to be performed again. Otherwise, the only thing that needs to be done is seasonal set up.

There is an argument to be made that acoustic instruments will suffer more. Cracks can be found in the top or the back. The counter argument to this thinking is that the maker, whether factory or individual, chose the wrong wood or did not season it properly. If the wood cracks it due to environmental changes and/or there was internal stress in the wood.

Most people do not remember this. At the beginning of the century a number of major guitar factories issued a statement to their dealers that they would not honor the warranty for any guitar kept in an uncontrolled environment e.g. between forty and sixty percent relative humidity. They knew that due to the speed of their production and the woods they were choosing would not stand up to normal changes across different climates. For a short period of time it fell to the dealers to remedy the consumer's complaints, sometimes by giving them a new guitar and taking the loss. Dealers rebelled and it came to a quick end.

By the way, the little humidifiers that go in the case don't work. First of all, the case must provide a seal that does not permit air and vapor to be exchanged with the outside environment. Unless you spend big money they don't, and bags are worse. If you remove the instrument from the case or the home environment, like gigging or taking it to a friend's for a session, the guitar quickly starts to adapt to the new surroundings. It's a constant battle.

So leave it alone. No more worries when the temperature drops or the when it rains for a couple of weeks. Just do a little bit of set up work and be done with it.

Respectfully submitted.

Last night our indoor RH was 12%, during the summer it exceeds 60%. It does impact the instrument. It may not fall apart, but neck relief changes of 66% (.3mm to .5mm) are significant and do impact playing. I don’t want to be continually setting up my basses, so controlling my household RH is a consideration.

Also, RH outside of the 30-50 range can cause health issues, so your flippant “my bass can survive anything I can” arguement does not apply.

Late edit: I’d like to introduce the opinion that when talking about measurable things such as RH and neck relief, opinions are worthless. It is facts, buddy. Science.

 

[shwashwa]

I run two humidifiers in a small room to keep my humidity at 30 to 35%. Temperature changes do not affect my basses, I have upright basses. But the action does rise and fall as the humidity changes, very noticeably

 

[JGbassman]

I live in a smaller apartment with the living room and kitchen sharing the same open area. I boil a large pan of water about every couple of days to introduce humidity back into the air. I have electric baseboard heat, which doesn't have the same drying effect as forced air. By doing so, it keeps my basses happy and my nose from itching due to low humidity levels this time of year.

 

[fokof]

Over here , in summer , humidity often gets to 80/90%.
In winter , because of electricity heating , it can get as low as 10% .......


I started the humidifier last week , it's running full blast since.
We have -30°C and 63% humidity outside today , inside is 35% .....

 

[3wavylines]

I live in New England. Our house has forced hot water for heat. We don't have AC except for one window unit.

I keep my basses in the basement, where I run a dehumidifier in the summer and a humidifier in the winter. I try to keep the humidity over 30% in the winter and under 60% in the summer. The relief on my basses, especially the ones with rosewood fingerboards, increases with less humidity, and decreases with more. Usually the variation is not too great, but sometimes I will tweak the truss rod.

I don't rely on the gauge on the humidifier. I have an electronic humidity gauge (https://www.amazon.com/Caliber-Digi...265572&sr=8-1&keywords=caliber+humidity+gauge) that I go by. For instance, these days to keep the humidity on the electronic gauge just over 30%, I have the humidifier set at 45%.

 

[Clark Westfield]

My house is around 35% during the winter.

I have a whole house humidifier and if I set it any higher in these super cold days we've been havin in NJ, moisture starts to accumulate on my older windows.

The only bass I see issues with is my all maple neck Fender.

But I had the frets filed 2 years ago.

Problem gone.

 

[mesaplayer83]

Last night our indoor RH was 12%, during the summer it exceeds 60%. It does impact the instrument. It may not fall apart, but neck relief changes of 66% (.3mm to .5mm) are significant and do impact playing. I don’t want to be continually setting up my basses, so controlling my household RH is a consideration.

Also, RH outside of the 30-50 range can cause health issues, so your flippant “my bass can survive anything I can” arguement does not apply.

Late edit: I’d like to introduce the opinion that when talking about measurable things such as RH and neck relief, opinions are worthless. It is facts, buddy. Science.

Agreed 100% on all of the above...

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Fingerboards shrink more readily the first year in a new environment but they do not swell back to their original size later. At least not enough to make enough difference that action need to be taken.

I've been monitoring all my instruments this Winter, especially for fret sprout.
My cheap LTD guitar got to be the worst. I check by taking a pen down the side of the fretboard, trying to maintain it at 90 degrees & feel for resistance. Resistance is the sharp ends of the frets impeding the movement of the pen.
Yeah, I know it's not exactly a scientific method, but if the pen gets snagged, so will my fingers.

Anyway, when the humidity was down to 15% three frets were definitely sticking out past the board, and on the underside where your fingers will slide. You could feel it when you played it.
I thought, "Ah well, I'll get someone to file those back in the Spring, or I'll just sell it.".

but this week I've been playing it & didn't really notice, so I did my check with the pen again & only one fret is a problem. It's now 30% humidity

So, I'm guessing when we get back in the 45 - 55% range, everything will be fine.

The upside is my instruments have lost weight, about 40 grams on average.

My SR eXtreme didn't change at all, but it's the oldest, 2012.
I've had the LTD guitar since April, so this is its first Winter.

 

[bholder]

With the help of 2 "whole house" humidifiers and a vaporizer going full blast, I've been struggling to keep my place above 20% on the cold does - doing ok, but over 30% would be better. Haven't noticed any adverse affects on the instruments.

 

[Nico88]

Do you have an acoustic string instrument with solid wood (as opposed to laminated wod)? 45 - 65% RH to keep the wood from drying out and cracking.

A solid body instrument wI'll be much more forgiving, but you still want to be in that same range. It'll keep the neck more stable, and prevent dealing with fret-sprout on newer instruments that weren't properly dried before fretting.

Hi, I’ve just been reading and learning about all of this and I don’t trust the place I bought my Fender elite jazz bass from ... they’re saying how important it is .. yet they shipped it w/o a humidifier and told me it’s been siting since Jan just in their stock ... I’m just about to take her to be set-up and inspected ... was shipped in the fender case the new ones ( I love the old ones .. yes I’m old) now about the newer case ... I don’t think they are sealed in such a way that air won’t be getting in it, hermetically sealed ? So ? Well I was PO at the shops who tried to sell me all of this after it had been shipped ... the sales guy said had he thought of it ... he would have thrown one in the case and purchase .. the confusion I have also is the fact that taking it out playing it putting it back in the case ... that’s going to fluctuate a lot I don’t have a home humidifier... my brother used to work for Fender and Quilter in the 70s he’s never used a humidifier ... I’m not saying that’s right or wrong .. I’m really confused here ? His guitars are solid and old one new one a year old .. he takes them for set-up etc only once a year ... I do agree and think a seasonal set-up is a great thing to do ... this thread is great I’m glad I did do the research it led me here ... I’m taking my bass in for inspection since they did ship it w/o a humidifier... and were trying to sell me so hard on them. And telling me about the fret wires and bleeding fingers etc .. on and on way over done ... also fender won’t warranty a guitar that’s had other polishes besides fender on them... the store sold me the Dunlop.. if topic .. but it’s not been a good experience .. oh and also my bass was double boxed but the outer box is larger than the stock box inside the box so it was sliding while shipped no padding ... it was shipped in its case the newer TSA ones .. anyway ... I’m quite nervous now .. that it’s been damaged in shipping (I had to buy on line MS) anyway so the whole humidifier issue and also they didn’t put one fragile sticker or this side up or do not drop ? Barely used a tape (seriously like could they spare it) I asked a ton of times about shipping as I just had to return a PRS sold as new and if was a demo ... off of reverb .. that oh my lord was shipped in the year old box gig bag and loose one layer of bubble wrap ... anyway that killed me ... so I was extra (do I thought) careful about how this store would ship it ... they didn’t do anything I was told over the phone. Not even close .. then the humidifier emails and calls popped up ... I then told them ? If this is so dire ? Why wasn’t it shipped with one? Etc on and on ... I’m having a hard time Believing any sellers and or now the repair guitar shop out here ... so omen person said about the frets being filed one time for shrinkage after or around the first year ? I am really glad I saw that post because to me that makes sense for a sold body lacquered bass guitar ... and it was a 2k instrument ... also fender says they don’t warranty like i said if you use any other brand than fender for polishing or cleaning the same shop sold me the Dunlop ... I have MS so I get brain fog ... my brothers guitars he has a 70s original SG he’s had all these years and Les Paul that’s about 30 years old .. and a newer SG my nephew bought him ... he’s never used a humidifier and has never had the frets shrink ? He does take them in yearly for set up etc ... help? Anyone ? And again sorry I do have brain fog ... my dream is to play before I can’t anymore ... and all of this about the humidifiers etc ... I can find one piece of info from a guitar maker saying any of this for non acoustic ? I hope this made sense ... I hope to god my bass is fine in its case after ups played foot ball with it .. the store did say if it is damaged etc .. I can switch it for the other serial number they have and they Will ship it one day to me with a humidifier in the case ... to me they sound like they’re trying to cover their butts by all of this .. because I did question them about the importance of it and if so it was from state to state in all kinds of wether ... so to me ... it seems a falsity? Because of their answers ? I’m so confused just I know they’ve lied like rugs ... and I’m worried now (over nothing I hope) that the bass is jacked in there ... I’m not touching it until I take it to the shop so the store can’t say I did anything to it ... I’m thinking this was a case of “over selling “ their explanations for a humidifier didn’t add up ... and the More they lied I ended up getting a huge partial refund ? Cool if my bass is ok .... and still cool cause I’ll get the same deal if I have to ship it back and get the other serial number ... I think maybe I’m just paranoid from the horrible Reverb transaction and their resolutions team .. so I went to a store .. and actual store for it .. anyway sorry this is so long I’ve been stressing and I have no clue what or who to believe ? I’m so glad I found this thread ... thanks

 

[Turnaround]

Hi, I’ve just been reading and learning about all of this and I don’t trust the place I bought my Fender elite jazz bass from ... they’re saying how important it is .. yet they shipped it w/o a humidifier and told me it’s been siting since Jan just in their stock ... I’m just about to take her to be set-up and inspected ... was shipped in the fender case the new ones ( I love the old ones .. yes I’m old) now about the newer case ... I don’t think they are sealed in such a way that air won’t be getting in it, hermetically sealed ? So ? Well I was PO at the shops who tried to sell me all of this after it had been shipped ... ... thanks

Don't get all bent out of shape over it. It's good practice to store your instrument in an environment with controlled humidity levels. Anywhere from 45% to 55% is ideal, - outside of those limits may not be ideal, but they are not dangerous, so long as you keep your instrument properly adjusted. You may get fret sprout, but that is easily corrected, and if done well you will only need to do that once.

A simple rule of is to not to expose your instrument to an environment you wouldn't be comfortable living in. So the trunk of your car on a hot summer day is a bad idea. And if your house gets so dry in the winter that you develop dry nose, or a cough or flaky skin, chances are the humidity level is too low for you and for your instrument. Also, it is worth noting that a brief exposure to less than ideal conditions will take many hours to many days to do damage. In and out of a case for a several hours is inconsequential.

 

[guts]

This is one of the reasons that I store my instruments in a case whenever I'm not using them. It's much easier to control the humidity inside the case than to do so for an entire room.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Does no good unless you have a device in there to keep the inside of the case humid. You can even make your own from soap-bar-boxes & sponges.

I've since discovered the joys of Titanium-reinforced necks & Roasted Maple necks, both of which weathered the low humidity this past Winter very well.

 

[guts]

I use a purpose built device, an instrument humidifier designed to stay in your case. They're not too expensive, but they do cost more than building something yourself.

 

[fokof]

Follow up on that subject

Bought an hygrometer for my instrument room , I kept it between 50% and 60% humidity and I didn't need to work neck relief all year on any on my basses.
Humidifier in winter ( because of electric heating ) and de-humidifier in summer ( becase it's humid in summer)

 

[Turnaround]

Drop that humidity level by 10% to bring it into the ideal range.

 

[ShadowGroover]

A discussion of humidity without considering outside temperature lacks usefulness. In mild outdoor winter temps 40-45% indoor humidity is reasonable.

However, as outdoor temps drop, indoor humidity percentages should follow. Without being specific for all outdoor temperatures and indoor humidity rates, consider an acceptable "rule of thumb."

As outdoor temps drop and condensation on interior windows forms, turn down the interior humidity rate to minimize or eliminate the condensation. Why?

The condensation could lead to interior mold growth that is harmful to human respiratory systems. So, make a concession that ideal winter indoor humidity could be a little less than optimal as outdoor temps drop and become more severe.

Preserving respiratory health is far more important than blindly preserving wooden instrument stability to a point of folly.

 

[fokof]

No matter what the temperature is outside, the hygrometer will tell you what's the humidity level in your room.