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Post by oustudent on Jun 7, 2018 16:17:53 GMT
This is the model I have, very well made
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Post by oustudent on Jun 26, 2018 18:33:10 GMT
Recorded 36% today !
Time to start worrying?
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Post by dreadnought28 on Jun 26, 2018 23:08:04 GMT
We live in a damp house (usually 80% and above) and I've had problems with guitars getting too wet. We now keep a dehumidifier running during the day and my guitars are fine. I think you only need to worry about a guitar getting too dry in the winter months when the central heating is on constantly or if you have a fire burning all the time. I agree I think dryness is more of an issue than wetness, if 45% is ideal then I am thinking anything significantly less than 45% would be an issue. I don't think we would see that naturally in the UK www.currentresults.com/Weather/United-Kingdom/humidity-annual.php My 40% must be attributed to the central heating. Back in March, when the Siberian weather hit, the humidity here fell below 20%. Just in case I bought a humidifier which I used for two or three weeks. It soon got things back to 45-50%. I also have a dehumidifier which was bought to dry out my bedroom after acmaj9r water leak. I’m showing 45% right now despite the heat.
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Post by dreadnought28 on Jun 26, 2018 23:09:15 GMT
Recorded 36% today ! Time to start worrying? No. And be aware they can be very inaccurate
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Post by oustudent on Jun 27, 2018 7:28:52 GMT
Checked on the internet for average Uk humidity, lowest recorded met office measurement was 28% yesterday!
For my area, current internet readings are claiming 39% and my device is currently showing 40%. I would say that is a fairly accurate measurement.
Guitars in cases for now, just in case (;-)
J
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davewhite
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Luthier
Aemulor et ambitiosior
Posts: 3,544
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Post by davewhite on Jun 27, 2018 8:20:44 GMT
Checked on the internet for average Uk humidity, lowest recorded met office measurement was 28% yesterday! J It was less than 10% humidity in my shed yesterday. The met office measurements are outdoor readings - get the sun shinning through windows in a room and it will drop lots. Digital hygrometers can be inaccurate but you can easily check by regularly calibrating them - I put this on another Forum post: "Hygrometer calibration is pretty simple. Get a ziplock bag that your hygrometer will fit into and a bottle cap or something similar that will hold some salt. Fill the bottle cap with salt, wet the salt so that the mixture will move slightly in the cap, put the cap and hygrometer in the bag and seal it. Then leave it overnight and check the reading in the morning - it should show 75.3%. I use cheap analogue hygrometers in my workshop and house that have the screw on the back for adjustment and calibrate them every few weeks. You can use different salts that have different RH readings - as I need to brace and close the box up at between 40-50% humidity I calibrate with potassium carbonate instead of salt (sodium chloride) as this stabilises at 43.16% relative humidity - the technique is exactly as I described above. It's good practice to calibrate your hygrometer every couple of weeks or so."
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Post by oustudent on Jun 27, 2018 8:22:52 GMT
Thanks, Dave, I'll check it out.
J
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2018 12:53:03 GMT
I got my TP55 Hygrometer (thanks to oustudent for the heads up, bargain at twelve quid!) yesterday from AmazonUK, and my guitar room has been monitored the last 24 hours showing a high of 47% and a low of 39%, so I think I am OK for now. The guitar doesn't even have a case and is always out on a stand. This is with much lower temps and humidity than we have outside right now, as we are lucky enough to have air conditioning, which I presume dries things out considerably. It will be interesting to see the fluctuations throughout the year, as the seasons change with windows open or closed, and the heating and aircon get switched on and off. Thanks so much to jackorion for the very informative post earlier, like he says, if you can't measure it, you won't know if you have a problem, possibly before it's too late, so I think the £12 investment is worth it, just for peace of mind. I won't feel so worried about investing in a Brook or a Lowden now!
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Post by bleatoid on Jul 8, 2018 21:47:50 GMT
we are lucky enough to have air conditioning, which I presume dries things out considerably. US-resident acoustic guitar afficionados appear universally adamant that domestic aircon is a killer of acoustic guitars (unless you have a rainsong or a laminate body). You might want to think about a case and an in-case humidifier like the planet waves one mentioned in a previous post. I keep my guitars out of their cases all year, hanging on an interior wall in a small room with the heating down low in that room and monitor humidity with a digital hygrometer. We're invariably in the 40-60% comfort zone - the one recent exception being the arctic blip earlier in the year as previously mentioned, when it swung well below 30%. I found that moving the clothes horse to near my guitar room door helped improve matters (and also that a human body in the room, particularly a singing one, can raise the humidity by 5% quite easily....)...... Peter ps - if you were to find yourself in the market for a decent piano, most good dealers will talk to you about their sensitivity to humidity too (the pianos, that is, not the dealers....). The major concern that they will invariably raise is underfloor heating - seems to cause many more problems that radiators apparently - not sure if this carries over to wall hung guitars though.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2018 9:32:17 GMT
I dunno, for two reasons: 1) I just got through watching the wonderful long video posted earlier in this thread, where the luthier claims that as long as you can measure the RH, and that it never goes below 40% or above 55% for long, and that the AVERAGE RH over an extended period of time (months) stays around 45-50%, you should be fine. 2) Americans use HVAC air conditioning, AFAIK, which is very different from the type we have in Japan, Italy and France (not sure what our type is called, but it's a totally different system I think), so am not sure US resident guitar aficionados opinions apply. I do understand that aircons change the temp and humidity extremely rapidly though, which of course doesn't sound that great for an acoustic! I'm happy to keep monitoring for a year or so, to build up a map of how different things affect the temp and RH, before taking any measures to change it. With windows, aircon and heating available all seasons, it should be possible to keep the guitar in the "controlled environment" so beloved by that wonderful Scott's luthier (wish I could afford one of his guitars, they are stunning!) In the 48 hours I've been measuring so far, we have had windows open and closed, and aircon on and off, and I have a high of 47% and a low of 39%, all of which are not very worrying.
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Post by PistolPete on Jul 9, 2018 10:52:17 GMT
Horrible fret buzz at the first fret on the D string of my Yamaha when I picked it up this morning. I can only conclude the dry spell has caused her belly to shrink a little (unlike mine which seem to have grown - I'm blaming ice cream & cold beer).
I've cut up an old sponge and put it inside an empty hummus tub in the case to see if that makes a difference.
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Post by robmc on Jul 9, 2018 11:15:31 GMT
I have a digital hygrometer but I find my old Victorian front door is a good indicator too, when I have to give it a kick shut it's humid, when the wind whistles through, it's dry! It can go from one to the other very quickly too, if that's happening to my 2 inch thick door....
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davewhite
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Luthier
Aemulor et ambitiosior
Posts: 3,544
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Post by davewhite on Jul 10, 2018 8:13:57 GMT
On the plus side now is a great time to play your guitars as they sound best - assuming you get on top of low string buzz with a truss rod tweak - when they are in low humidity
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Post by andyhowell on Jul 10, 2018 16:07:35 GMT
On the plus side now is a great time to play your guitars as they sound best - assuming you get on top of low string buzz with a truss rod tweak - when they are in low humidity Truss rod tweak? Low string buzz is part of my technique :-)
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Post by PistolPete on Jul 17, 2018 17:40:49 GMT
On the plus side now is a great time to play your guitars as they sound best - assuming you get on top of low string buzz with a truss rod tweak - when they are in low humidity I've slackened the truss rod a full turn, raised the adjustable bridge a little. Now I have much higher action at the 12th fret than I did, but my D string is still buzzing off the first & second frets. Anyone have any ideas?
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