Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, because of all the dry temps around here, the lack of humidity in the house has caused some of the fret ends on a couple guitars to stick out. I since have gone out and bought the biggest console humidifier I could find so I think my humidity problem is solved.

My question is this:

Will re-hydrating the air help the fingerboards swell back to normal, or do I need to file the fret ends to get the neck smooth again?

Also, what do you all recommend for humidity level in the house for my "playing" guitars, not my shop humidity which is controlled separately? I'm thinking 45% should be ok. What's the min. during winter?

Thank you!

John

the remarkable thing is that what we consider a healthy rh range for out guitars is also what is considered a good healthy range for ourselves, i.e. 45-50%. if we took better care of ourselves the problems of our intruments would not exist.

it may take a couple of weeks but the wood should swell again to cover the fret ends.

I had a similar issue earlier in the week, John. After 5 days at 45%, everything is back to normal.

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Thanks guys, I have the humidifier set for 45% now. JJ--you better buckle down, I hear there is another storm coming our way!

Cheers!

John

Had the same thing happen here, too. I decided to go ahead and redress the offending fret end to eliminate the issues altogether regardless of humidity.
Besides that, it also gave me a reason to install the side dots on my fretboard. Thanks for the post on that a few weeks ago, Hesh!
I just got a heads up on the weather. I hope they`re wrong about 8-10" of snow and blowing winds!
Oh well, I guess we`ve had it pretty good so far this winter, and we`re about due for it.
Coe

_________________
Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,