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Hello All

I wondered if I could get some input on what you think about Workshop Humidity Levels, I have always kept the shop at around 50% with the controls set to keep between 45%-55%, visiting a luthiers shop the other day (he has been making guitars a lot longer than me) he said he thought between 55-65% was ok, I am now not sure what to do, there is no doubt this would seriously cut energy bills, but not worth saving if it causes other problems.

I know there is a vast degree of experience on this forum so I wondered if I could get some opinions.

i suppose this will cause some to get out their buckets of stones for the heretic but to a certain extent it depends upon where you expect the guitar to live. i believe the 45-50 percent figure is a range found by the big factories to suit the fact that their instruments have to live in a wide range of climatic conditions, and even then can'tcope with the hazards encountered.

if you know for sure that your instrument is not going to be going to dry climes, or live in over heated cold weather homes which are dry as a desert, then building at higher rh isn't going to do any damage, and in fact may lead to greater stability. but if you are wrong because of changes in circumstances, whatever, then owners have to be even more careful about maintaing humidification.crazymanmichael38530.6705671296

Thanks Michael

Your reply is very much appreciatted, the atmosphere here tends to be reasonably damp, but then of course you move into a centrally heated house and the humidity is much lower. And who is to say a client won't move to a different climate. My thinking is that perhaps I should stay as I am, at least then I am able to say to my clients, I am following what is considered "best practice".

What do you think ?

I recently repaired three guitars under warranty from a company outside the US. The tops split open at the center seam during the dry Northeast winter. Heat and air conditioning both steal most of the humidity from the air. The company in question builds at around 50-55% rh, which is probably not the best for 2 out of four seasons here. The reality is that guitars spend most of their time in homes where the rh is pretty low. The danger of drying out is worsened if the guitar is built in higher rh levels. I shoot for 40-45% during bracing and assembly times.

_________________
"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."

I'm a firm believer in building a bit on the dry side since guitar wood can handle expansion from humidity far better than contraction due to low humidity. However I do live in the northeast where humidity levels can vary drasticly with the seasons. I store all my wood in my shop so trying to maintain a decent humidity level isn't exactly cheap even with a weather tight shop.

Thanks Guys

Paul I have the same problem, the workshop has my storeroom attached to it, I like to keep both at the correct humidity.

I build snd store my wood at between 44 and 48%. In the wintewr I dump about 5 galons of water in through the humidifier per day and in the summer I am taking almost as much out with the dehumidifier. In the winter houses around here will drop as low as 10% and in the summer they are up in the 70% range. And then if you are selling guitars all over the place they have even more problems.   I give a lot of instruction for clients about keeping the guitars properly humidified yet this last winter I still had 2 guitars that were sold locally that people allowed to dry out and had serious problems.

Arvey Thank you, I sppreciatte the help

   I have learned that the drier the better. I try and glue tops and backs up on what I plan to build for the year in Jan Feb as it is about 25% RH here in PA.
   45% to 55% is not good enough to deal with if the guitar is in AZ or AK. Lower humidity levels will just tear up the tops
john hall

Thanks John

Now that must take some planning, Dp ypu brace the tops at the same point, or do it as you need it?

[QUOTE=tippie53]    I have learned that the drier the better. I try and glue tops and backs up on what I plan to build for the year in Jan Feb as it is about 25% RH here in PA.
   45% to 55% is not good enough to deal with if the guitar is in AZ or AK. Lower humidity levels will just tear up the tops
john hall [/QUOTE]

This is good to hear. I have an almost constant 30%-40% in my shop during the summer. May thru Oct.( we don't really get spring or fall). This is when I do most of my assembly. I was concerned about being too low but sounds ok I guess huh?

I live in the High Desert of West Texas our avrage rh is some where between 25-35%. I build mostly for player is my general area, but I too feel it is better to build in a dryer climate than in a damp one. I agree with Paul, the wood expands much better than it contracts. So I build at 30-35% rh for my area. I di dnot build much this winter because we had a very unusally damp winter, avraging 60% or more. I did not want to risk top poping so I just twiddeled my thumbs this winter.