Humidity and wooden instruments: How to keep your instruments alive and happy in a dry climate

   This year California is having the worst drought I’ve seen in my lifetime.  Since this record has been broken a few times during the last decade and assuming the trend will continue, I do hereby impart my perspectives on keeping your wooden instruments alive and happy in an inherently and increasingly hostile climate.

   I moved from LA up to the Eastern Sierra from ’03 to ’10, where humidity hovers around the low teens, sometimes in the lower single digits.
Upon starting to buy existing instrument humidifiers and soon discovering that they don’t do the job, I began to experiment with humidification for my axes until I found the answer.  After much trial and travail, not only in pursuit of humidification but also monitoring of same, I arrived at a system I still use, though I’ve since moved back to L.A….and make no mistake, L.A. can get dry as well.  Humidity has been as low as 1% here a couple of times this year.

1) How to make it humid for your instrument:
Water falls through atmosphere, so be aware of that.  Your source of humidification should be above the height of your instrument(s).
The effectiveness of in-case and in-instrument humidifiers varies wildly depending on how often they’re recharged, how tightly the case seals and they really don’t humidify the instrument evenly.  They’re a good thing to have when you take your instrument out into the world, but not as a means of keeping it happy long-term.
What works best is humidifying the entire chamber the instruments are in; a dedicated closet with weather stripping around the door works nicely, as does an old armoire with weather stripping.
NOTE:  Weather stripping is key; humidity rapidly equalizes in air, so seal that space, especially along the bottom where the most moist air would flow out.
Having procured a suitable, sealed space, just hang a damp face towel (or full-size towel, depending on the size of the space) up high in the chamber and re-wet it whenever it feels dry; in the event you live in a place like Las Vegas, this will probably be about every 24 hours.  You can also add a humidifier to your house’s central AC, but they’re thousands of dollars and prone to growing moldy things in the reservoir.

2) How humid to make it:
Taylor says guitars are healthiest between 45% and 55%.  I think that’s a bit high for practical purposes, especially if you’re taking it out into the desert dryness when you play.  I find that my instruments are stable and happy between 35% and 45%, plus I can maintain that level of humidity more uniformaly, so they experience less variance.

3) Monitoring your humidity:
Fancy hygrometers from cigar humidifier companies don’t work very well…these tend to be showy (read: expensive) conversation pieces and not very good, technologically speaking.
I scored a great digital system for 60 USD (80 now) that has two satellite sensors which transmit information for the main unit to display.  The main display unit sits on my desk, tells me the time, temp and humidity in my studio, as well as the humidity in the chambers where my guitars live.  It works great and the batteries last about 6 months.  You can buy the current version here.

4) How to keep your instrument humid on an outdoor gig in the desert:
You’re screwed.  If your neck starts leaning back and your action lowers, that’s your instrument screaming for water.  Just be sure to give it a nice drink when you get home.

More to come.