humidifiers!!

[rockyall107]

so this winter has been pretty brutal on my guitar. i have kept it in its case yet im still getting some buzz so i went out and bought a sound hole humidifier which to me hasnt done a damn thing in fact im hearing subtle annoying buzzing more now..so im going out and buying a room humidifier...any suggestions as to which one is the best or what i should do? i mean my guitar is a year old its a breedlove and im in love with it..i have taken it to a luthier and he claims to had fixed it yet im still hearing it so!! and suggestions would help thanks!

[RunsWithBuffalo]

How long did you give the sound hole humidifier? Mine took about three weeks, changing the water every day and keeping the guitar in the case.

[Coldchillin]

^^^

It's definitely not an instant fix.

[rockyall107]

i have had the humidifier for about a month and a half-2 months...i just feel like im hearing more buzzing now then i did when i bought it..and im getting annoyed...should i take it back to the luthier???

[hensdogg]

I just got a Taylor 314-CE this weekend and I also bought one of these sound hole humidifiers. I have never used one before and I was just wondering how often you should use it?

thanks.

[Coldchillin]

I personally keep it in there and in my case when I am not using it. Don't SOAK the humidifier and use DISTILLED water.

[jsgksu]

I have had a sound hole one in my guitar since Christmas, but I only remember to fill it up like once every couple of weeks. I have a room humidifier that I use every night because I was getting nose bleeds from the cold/dry winter weather that I hope helps the guitar too.

I have a cold air humidifier, which I dont really care for at all since I wake up cold every morning, I think Id rather have a hot air humidifier, it seems like that would be more effective anyway. I dont see how well a cold air one really puts moisture into the air.

[Coldchillin]

Make sure you check the level of that room one because you don't want too much moisture in the air either.

[hensdogg]

How do you check the levels. See I travel a lot so I need something to check the hotel rooms I stay in. The humidifier came with a paper type gauge but I don't know If I trust that. ALso, does it really need to be used with distilled water? The guy where I bought it said it didn't really matter.

[RunsWithBuffalo]

You don't need to check the levels, its a guitar. Just avoid the extremes. If it feels muggy in your room, turn the humidifier down.

Some homes and apartments have humidity settings. Try to keep it around 20-30%.

As far as hotel rooms are concerned, a night or two is not going to do anything to your guitar, it takes weeks and even months to damage the instrument and most of the time you can correct the damage (unless of course it cracks or warps).

When youre not using the guitar, keep the humidifier in it and keep it in its case. No need to obsess over this.

[Coldchillin]

You use distilled water for the humidifier's benefit, not so much the guitar's. Minerals in tap water can clog the sponge in the humidifier over time whereas distilled won't. For checking the room, I guess you could try and find a small hygrometer.

[dmb66]

I suggest you guys look at this page...it should answer any preconcieved notions about humidity.
http://www.larrivee.com/5_features/educ ... essay.html
-Nick

[geo3217]

so this winter has been pretty brutal on my guitar. i have kept it in its case yet im still getting some buzz so i went out and bought a sound hole humidifier which to me hasnt done a damn thing in fact im hearing subtle annoying buzzing more now..so im going out and buying a room humidifier...any suggestions as to which one is the best or what i should do? i mean my guitar is a year old its a breedlove and im in love with it..i have taken it to a luthier and he claims to had fixed it yet im still hearing it so!! and suggestions would help thanks!

This is off-topic, but I hate it when luthiers say they've "fixed" a problem. I've had this happen to me before where they say it's fixed when it's definitely not. Luthiers like to act like they are knowledgeable about guitars, even when they are not, so they tweak the action or file the frets and then claim that it's fixed just because they don't want to do anything else with it. If they adjust the action, and that doesn't fix it, they aren't going to want to do anything else with it, so they'll just give it back to you and claim that it's fixed, until you come back a few days later telling them it's still having the same problems. I had buzzing on my guitar, so I took it into the shop and a young employee of the luthier said "oh yeah, I can fix that". Then, to my horror, he took hacksaw to it (literally) and sawed down the nut. After he gave it back to me (free of charge, lucky me haha not) claiming it was fixed, it was buzzing way worse than before. I brought it in when the owner was there and got him to fix it. He had to fill in the horrible nut job with some synthetic stuff. After he was done, the buzzing was fixed but he told me that there was a crack that had formed in the nut over time. Bullshit, that kid just cracked it.

Anyways, that's enough of my rant. The point is if you need your guitar adjusted, go in to the store when the actual luthier is there and not some little dumbass who just needs a guitar to practice on.

[Grachi]

You don't need to check the levels, its a guitar. Just avoid the extremes. If it feels muggy in your room, turn the humidifier down.

Some homes and apartments have humidity settings. Try to keep it around 20-30%.

As far as hotel rooms are concerned, a night or two is not going to do anything to your guitar, it takes weeks and even months to damage the instrument and most of the time you can correct the damage (unless of course it cracks or warps).

When youre not using the guitar, keep the humidifier in it and keep it in its case. No need to obsess over this.

actually cracks can be counter-acted if they were caused by low humidity... there was a cool video on the taylor website that showed how the crack actually fixed itself just by properly humidifying teh guitar with an in-hole solution for a long period of time (weeks, a month perhaps)