Why You NEED to Keep Your Guitars Humidified

Don't be like me - keep your guitars humidified throughout the dry Winter months and save yourself the terror of waking up to a cracked top on one of your prized acoustics. In this video, I'm going over a few different ways that I use to ensure my instruments stay in top condition through the year.

▶️ *Highlights*
0:00 - Intro

#humidity #guitar
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Hi! My name is Alex Price. I’m a professional musician based out of Pittsburgh, USA. I make a living between touring, performing on cruise ships, and while I’m home, teaching. Check out my new uploads every Tuesday and Saturday for gear demos, lessons, and performance clips.

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[alexweibel]

Great vid! My guitars live in their cases during the colder months and each of them has an in-case humidifier. Do you think there's a risk of over-humidifying a guitar with an in-case humidifier like that?

[donfoster]

A "hydrometer" is an instrument that measures the density of a liquid. An example is the gizmo that indicates the charge of a lead-acid battery using a float. Another example is the floating thing that indicates the amount of alcohol in water and is used in brewing or wine-making. And yet another example is the thingy for measuring the amount of glycol in your car's antifreeze coolant.

A "hygrometer" is the instrument you keep mentioning -- it's a device for measuring the humidity (%RH) in air. RH is temperature-dependent. (Other instruments indicate the actual or absolute moisture content of air, sometimes in lb per lb or as dew point.

My D-18 suffered the same crack for the same reason. The humidifier from Martin works very well. I also use one in my D12-28.

[dksouthpawatx]

Apparently you can soak the humidipaks in distilled water and they will be restored, might work faster than the sponge you mentioned

[lindcobbs]

I’ve had my two guitars for a few years and had no clue about this. Guitar manufacturers should include a notice with the guitar to make people aware of this.

[larrycavallucci]

Thanks...Overall, a very good video. Some other thoughts/info for you and other readers. 1) I have two Crane humidifiers and alternate their use. We live in Phoenix, so it's dry except for now, during the "monsoon season". I only use Distilled water, which people should use if they have hard tap water. Otherwise, you'll get a whiteish/grey film all over your room, which is a pain to clean. Trust me, cause I tried tap water for awhile. I have D'Addario sound hole units, $9, I bought from my Luthier, who has 40 yrs experience. He also said it's best to use a hard case for acoustic guitars. I try to keep my Temp at around 45 degrees in my 12x14 music studio. I have some Kyser's that fit over the whole sound hole, but they only fit certain guitars with a normal sound hole. I have some AG's with smaller sound holes, so I use the ones that fit between the strings. But some of my guitars don't have much depth, like a slimline Yamaha 12-string A/E so people should check to see which IN-Case, between strings humidifier would work best for each of their guitars. I also only use Distilled water for the sound hole units. And I check them/refill the units once a week. I am a bit reluctant to use in-case units that are "free form" and just fit somewhere in a hard case, i.e. for a Mandolin. Any suggestions for those?

[MonteD]

Dry guitars sound better, but you have to lower the humidity very slowly. Quick changes in humidity are the issue.

[WarrenWest]

Any issues or concerns relevant to the tech./electrical equipment in the room?

[SD_Marc]

Is a "daily driver" as affected by environmental changes if you are tuning it everyday; alleviating big string-tension changes? I live in a pretty mild climate, and play my acoustic every day. I have a case, but only use it for transportation. I don't really ever store the guitar.

[eliseovdev]

Yeah but only in country that is super low humidity