Official Luthiers Forum!

hi.
i have a confusion in my mind. .. it's about how i should dry my wood. and for how long. i know that when i purchase a set of woods it is already dried and ready to become a guitar. but for my own safety i want to let the wood to dry a little longer. in my shop i have 40-45 % humidity and around 20 degree celsius that is about 68-70 F. it should be higher? well i want some opinion from you about how long you keep the wood in your shop after you purchase it and in what conditions?
thanks!!!

Your shop conditions appear fine and normal. How long I allow wood to dry depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to the source of the wood (I know certain suppliers dry sets in various ways and hold on to them for various times; I generally expect guitar sets to be pretty dry when I receive them) and the thickness of the cut (from green wood to dry, the general rule is 12 months dry time for each inch of thickness; for thin cuts like guitar plates, 3 or 4 months dry time is usually sufficient). Even for sets I know have been well dried prior to reaching my shop, I sticker the sets under weight and allow them to acclimate to the shop for at least 30 days before using them (generally much longer though).

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Aaron Craig

The easy way is to weigh the pieces regularly. When the weight quits changing, it's acclimated. You will need a precision scale, the weight changes will be very small.

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A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

From any of the "top tier" wood suppliers, and I would include every one of our supporters
that I have ordered from in that group, I believe the wood would be good with a week of
acclimation. That said, I've only used wood that fresh in a couple of instances, like where
I broke a side during bending, and ordered a single side or set of sides to replace it. Most of
the time the wood I use has been around 6 months to a year or more. It depends on how
much "WAS" you are subject too. If you can't resist good looking sets, you have plenty of
wood to choose from. When I was just starting, I would generally buy cheaper woods to
learn how to build with, but every once in a while I would get a really nice set, and add it
to the stash waiting until I could build better (I'm still in learning mode, so most of the
really nice sets are still waiting....).

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

+1 A standard moisture meter does not work accurately on thin pieces of wood.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Not sure that that is the "easy way" (it does require a quality scale and regular monitoring/restacking), but it is one way and a good way to potentially determine the soonest time a set reaches equilibrium. It's a bit more daring, but you can also just lay the wood on a flat surface and keep flipping it over everyday till it stops moving, i.e., reaches equilibrium. Easy, but risky with some ill-tempered or poorly cut sets.

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Aaron Craig

i have a very nice set of Madagascar rosewood but i intend on using after i gain more experience. my teacher also taught me to keep the wood in my shop at least 6 months. but i am a curious guy so i searched and searched. and i wanted to ask you guys from your experience.i have plenty of cheap wood to practice on

Depends a lot how old the set is now...so when it actually had been resaw. And from what was it resaw? From a board which was just sliced from the tree still running around in the workshop, or from a board already standing 5 years in a dusty, dry corner of a wooddealers warehouse.

Wood is so unique that you have to judge from piece to piece different.

With Madrose, if the set was bought "wet", from Madinter for example, I would wait loner, something like 10 years, no kidding, I am quite serious about this topci...

Cheers, Alex

Yeah, what Alex said....the longer the better. This is why a lot of folks date their wood when it comes in, and use the oldest stuff first. First In, First Out. But I wouldn't use any wood until it's sat for several months. This may be a personal thing, but I like to be sure.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

For thin body woods (~ 4-5mm):
My experience is that if you stack the wood on sticks and put a fan on it, it will acclimate in a few days. Without the fan, it can take a month or more.
As far as determining equilibrium, jac68984 is right. You don't need a precision scale or a moisture meter.
Lay the wood on a flat surface, exposing the upper side. If it curls up on the edges (concave up), it is losing moisture to the air. If it bows up in the center (convex up), it is gaining moisture from the air.

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John

what about the face wood the method with the fan will work?