It’s that time of year again! Yes, yes, 'tis the season for holiday cheer and spending time with loved ones, too, but of course I’m talking about the time to discuss humidification. In the Pacific Northwest, the winter months can be too dry for most stringed instruments. The process of heating your home and dipping into freezing temperatures outside are just two of the things that can dry out the space your instrument inhabits. Why is that bad? Letting your instrument get overly dry can lead to changes in setup, sharp fret ends, and eventually cracks, because the wood shrinks as it gets drier. Too damp is also bad, because the wood can swell and you’ll get warping and seam splits, but for this discussion, we’re focusing on low humidity.
Most manufacturers recommend keeping your instrument between 40-60% humidity (or an even narrower range) to ensure it stays happy and healthy and functions like you’d want it to. Fortunately, that overlaps nicely with many of our homes in Seattle for most of the year, so from spring through fall, you may not need to manage your instrument’s humidity at all. How do you know your instrument’s humidity level? The most straightforward way to do it at home is to use a hygrometer, a device that measures humidity in the surrounding air. There are small ones that fit inside an instrument case, and other models designed to measure the humidity in a whole room. It’s best to monitor the humidity in the area where your instrument will live: if you leave your guitar on a hanger in the living room, get a hygrometer for your living room. If you keep it in a case, use a hygrometer in the case.
Ok, my hygrometer is reading low, now what? What you’ll want to do is add moisture to the instrument’s environment, in a way that keeps it in the target range of 40-60% humidity. Again, too much humidity can be bad too, so we want to add moisture in a controlled, steady way. If you plan to keep your guitar hanging in the living room, you’ll need a humidity solution that humidifies the whole living room. There are many room humidifiers on the market; you’ll want to look for one that it is rated for more than the cubic footage of the area you’re trying to humidify. These work best in rooms that will hang on to that moisture, such as a music room where you can close the door. For example, my drafty old apartment on top of a windy hill saw no benefit from room humidification, because any moisture was dispersed instantly.
I should mention that just putting a kettle on or leaving the shower running can add some moisture to the room for a short time, but we want to avoid lots of sharp up-and-down fluctuations, because the wood will shrink or expand with each change. Instead, it’s best to get to a humidity level in the safe zone of 40-60% and stabilize it there.
The other option, and it’s usually easier to achieve, is to limit the size of the environment you’re trying to humidify: put the instrument in its case for the dry season, and humidify it there. The case holds a much smaller volume of air, so it’s easier to measure, and easier to control. We have a few of our favorite humidifiers on our website (hygrometers too!), and many other options available at our store. Just don’t forget to close the case when you take your instrument out to play; you want to preserve that comfortable environment for when your instrument goes back in.
Happy holidays and safe strumming!
