Protecting Your Valuable Musical Instruments This Dry Season

To many musicians and collectors, our instruments are everything to us. They bring joy, inspiration, and to some, income.

Musical instruments made from organic materials, like wood, are sensitive to the amount of moisture in their surroundings, even more so than people and animals.

For those who have invested much in your instruments, keeping them “healthy” is crucial to avoid unnecessary costs (and possible heartache) down the road.

Why do guitars and other wooden string instruments need humidifying?

Like humans, guitars, basses, pianos, and other wooden, stringed instruments are the healthiest in an environment of 45- 55% RH (relative humidity).

In the colder months, when the air is dryer, humidity can drastically drop, causing a series of unpleasant issues to your instruments. Some may require costly maintenance; others, more severe, permanent damage.

Instruments exposed to severely dry air are susceptible to a plethora of problems, including:

• Uncomfortably high action: (The distance between the string and the fretboard, making the instrument more difficult to play.) High action can also cause hand cramps and fatigue.
• Annoying fret buzz: Notes don’t ring out freely.
• Warping/twisting of the neck
• Intonation/tuning issues
• Sharp fret ends: When a fretted instrument’s neck becomes too dry, the neck will shrink, exposing the metal fret ends to stick out from the sides. When this happens, it can be painful or uncomfortable to play. Depending on the severity of the protrusion, it sometimes is irreversible, requiring a fret dressing and additional work to restore the moisture in the wood of your instrument.
• Cracks in the finish or actual wood: It’s common to see older acoustic instruments with a hairline crack going through the top of the body. This is evidence that it was either not cared for or left in varying, extreme environments throughout the years. On electric guitars, cracks in the finish, especially in nitrocellulose, are common due to exposure and storage in extremely dry environments where the humidity level is quickly changed.

Cracks in wood and finish from prolonged exposure to dry air.

Keeping your guitar and other wooden stringed instruments in the “healthy zone” of humidity all year round helps protect them, significantly improving their lifespan and playability.

I haven’t used a humidifier before, and my acoustic guitar seems dry. Is it too late to use a humidifier?

We recommend rehydrating a dry guitar promptly with a humidifier to maintain optimal humidity levels in dry climates.