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banjopicks
 Post subject: low humidity
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:09 pm 
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I was talking to a guitarist at a festival over the weekend about keeping guitars humidified and why. I don't bother doing anything special myself. I was surprised to hear him say that if it got too dry, the top would become domed causing buzzing! This didn't make any sense to me but he was adamant so now I'm questioning myself. I told him he had to be more concerned with cracks developing and the top would actually become flatter. Is my logic flawed? What's the scoop?

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Jim Watts
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:39 pm 
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You are indeed correct, he needs to be concerned about cracking. As the top dries out it can loose it's dome and cause buzzing. Perhaps though his guitar takes on a concave shape (reverse doming if you will) when it dries out which of course is even worse than flatteng out as far as buzzing goes. This can happen when the top is very flat to begin with.

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bluescreek
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 4:39 pm 
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He must have meant what you were thinking. Tops sink not rise when they get dried

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banjopicks
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:29 pm 
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Thanks. I thought I had it right. Just needed some reassurance. I won't try to convince him otherwise though. He's pretty sure of his theory and he was definitely talking about the top becoming more domed.

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billrayner
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:06 pm 
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There's another consideration. You know how woods smell when you cut them? Those are the resins coming out of the wood into the air. Any time your instrument dries, the moisture that comes out into the air brings with it some resins. So a repetitive cycle of shrinking, swelling, shrinking, swelling means that the wood is losing a minute amount of mass each time, and will eventually crack for that reason. Keeping the wood at a constant humidity level will keep the resins in the wood longer.

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DannyV
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:36 am 
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Todd Stock wrote:
So it's like not letting the smoke out of electronics components, right? Every electronics component has a minute amount of smoke inside necessary for proper function. Should the smoke leak out, the component will become non-functional, usually rendering the entire device inoperative.



Darn, I wish I would have known of this before I changed the battery in my watch............. and I just did the brushes in my stereo amp. :?
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Dave Rickard
 Post subject: Re: low humidity
PostPosted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:40 am 
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Todd Stock wrote:
So it's like not letting the smoke out of electronics components, right? Every electronics component has a minute amount of smoke inside necessary for proper function. Should the smoke leak out, the component will become non-functional, usually rendering the entire device inoperative.

So along the same lines, letting too much stink out of a piece of wood causes cracking, right?



Not to step on your toes Todd, but that's not just any smoke, it's magic smoke.

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