Of wood guitars and humidifiers...

twistedlim Posted 2009-12-20 1:42 PM (#386142) Subject: Of wood guitars and humidifiers... Joined: November 2008 Posts: 1119 Location: Michigan So we stopped in the local Guitar Center, (wife wanted to pick up a couple of stocking stuffers) and I naturally migrated to the "good guitar" room. The room had its own humidifier in there. The digital readout read 85. I am assuming it was 85% because it we pretty darn humid in there. Anyway I pick up a number of the higher priced Martin and Taylors and I have to tell you I was less than impressed. I would not have traded my UTE for any 2 of them. I got to thinking that maybe there was too much humidity in the room causing the guitars to swell and seem "tight". They just did not seem very warm and full. Could the humidity cause this or is it that I am just so used to the sound of the UTE? CanterburyStrings Posted 2009-12-20 1:56 PM (#386143 - in reply to #386142) Subject: Re: Of wood guitars and humidifiers... Joined: March 2008 Posts: 2683 Location: Hot Springs, S.D. Both I would think. I too have been at Guitar Centers where the humidity was so high in the "high end room" that you could see it like a fog in the air, and the guitars actually seemed wet. Another good reason not to spend your money there. Too high humidity is almost as bad for a guitar as too low. Between 40 and 60 percent is just right. At 85 percent the top swells so you have "artificially" high action, and you will later see a kind of washboard effect on the wood grain. I have a humidifier built in to the furnace here at the shop and it works great. (Helps keep my skin from drying out too.)