humidity question

[ron_a218]

I hope this is the right forum to ask this question but I need some advice. The humidity has been horrible here the last few weeks and I had the windows open instead of the AC and suddenly I noticed all my instruments, guitars and basses were way sharp. Having never really thought about it, I assumed if the the humidity was too high that the neck would follow the strings and results would be flat. I guess though the truss rod being suddenly stronger than the neck allows it to go the other way. My fender jazz five has a pretty thick neck and I didn't notice it playing any different just sharp, but my Carvin LB70 had the strings laying on the frets with some serious back bow. My question is do I need to keep it sharp so the neck will return to the original position or detune some? I turned on the AC to lower the humidity. Any risk of long term damage? Thanks, Ron A

 

[seansbrew]

I have had this same issue with some instruments. I live in AZ where the humidity can be as low as 4% during the summer. Then out of nowhere, the humidity will jump to 75% when the monsoon storms roll in. The necks on some of my instruments would move so much that I would have to adjust the truss rods in order to make them playable. However, I would not always adjust all my basses (just the ones I was using at that time). The necks on the basses that I did not adjust eventually moved back to their original position. This was one of the reasons I became interested in graphite necked basses. For the most part, it really was not that big of a deal.

 

[ron_a218]

We always have alot of humidity here (east TX) and I've noticed some slight changes in my guitars and basses (especially the Carvin) but I don't guess I've ever had the windows open that long along with exceptionally wet weather. I was afraid if I went to adjusting truss rods that I would just have to readjust in a few days. My main concern is I didn't wan't the back bow to be permanent. Thanks for the info.